ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Tasos Bekiaris
Choreographer · Dance-Theatre Director · Performing Arts Educator
Tasos Bekiaris is an Athens-based choreographer, dance-theatre director and performing arts educator. As the founder and artistic director of LOAD, he develops performances and educational processes centred on physical storytelling, stage presence and the relationship between individual identity and collective action.
His artistic language moves across contemporary dance, theatre and interdisciplinary performance. In his work, the body is approached not merely as an instrument of execution or display, but as a carrier of experience, memory, relationship and narrative.
Artistic Practice
Bekiaris trained in Greece and the United States across a range of dance forms and techniques, including jazz, contemporary jazz, hip hop, musical theatre, release technique and Limón technique. Throughout his career as a dancer and choreographer, he has collaborated with L.A.G. in New York and with Maria Lazari’s dance company as part of the Association of Greek Choreographers’ Dance Festival.
In 2015, he participated in the Greek National Exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.
In 2012, he founded LOAD Dance Company. The company’s first production, “Anasfallo”, was presented at Argo Theatre in 2013, followed later that year by “Anasfallo revised” at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation.
In 2016, he directed and choreographed the music-theatre production “The Prison Ballad”, based on KollektivA’s concept album and inspired by Oscar Wilde’s poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”.
That same year, he created the six-month educational and performance project “Anthrope XΨ” (“Human XΨ”), bringing professional dancers, dance students and people with no previous dance experience into a shared creative process. The project culminated in a stage production at Argo Theatre.
The dance-theatre works “Sti[zo]” followed in 2017 and “EPI_SKEPSI” in 2018. That same year, he performed the role of John the Baptist in “Salome” at the National Theatre of Greece, directed by Stavros Litinas. In 2019, he appeared as a dancer in the music-theatre production “Our Cinema”, choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos.
In 2022, he conceived and artistically directed the ROOM Dance Festival at Arroyo Theatre. That same year, he presented “Saragini”, for which he was responsible for the concept, choreography and direction.
In 2023, he participated as a choreographer and dancer in the creative team of the opening ceremony of the Mediterranean Beach Games “Heraklion 2023”.
In 2025, he presented “To_morRow”, part of the artistic project “Rhythm of Awareness”. Bringing together seventeen performers in an industrial setting, the work explored the human relationship with fear and uncertainty, as well as the collective need to remain present in the here and now.
Educator
Tasos Bekiaris has been teaching since 2004 in both professional and non-professional dance and performing arts contexts. He has also led workshops in different parts of Greece, working with professional performers, students, older participants, traditional dancers and people with no previous dance training.
His pedagogical approach connects technical training with physical awareness, stage presence, spatial and relational perception, and the body’s ability to communicate. Rather than encouraging the reproduction of a single movement model, his teaching develops observation, choice, precision and each performer’s personal responsibility towards the stage act.
In 2021, he formalised LΣY, an approach to movement and performance research whose foundations he had already begun to explore through “Anthrope XΨ”. LΣY draws on the body, sensory awareness, relational practice and lived experience as materials for stage creation. It is addressed both to professional performing artists and to people with no previous dance training.
Within LOAD Dance School, Bekiaris approaches the educational performance as an independent field of dance-theatre creation. In June 2024, he presented “Rogmi” (“Rift”) at Porta Theatre. In June 2026, “The Kitchen Table” was presented in two performances at Katerina Vassilakou Theatre.
For both works, he was responsible for the concept, dramaturgy and direction, as well as the overall choreographic composition, supervision and editing. Individual choreographies created by teachers of the school were integrated into the shared dramaturgical and choreographic framework of each production. Both projects were developed as unified dance-theatre works rather than as collections of separate student pieces.
Through his artistic and educational practice, Bekiaris investigates the body’s ability to produce meaning, communicate and transform individual experience into collective stage action.
Selected Artistic Work
2013 — Anasfallo
Concept, choreography and direction. Argo Theatre and Michael Cacoyannis Foundation.
2016 — The Prison Ballad
Direction and choreography. Michael Cacoyannis Foundation.
2016 — Anthrope XΨ
An educational and performance project bringing together professionals, students and people with no previous dance experience. Argo Theatre.
2017 — Sti[zo]
A dance-theatre production by LOAD Dance Company. Anesis Theatre.
2018 — EPI_SKEPSI
A dance-theatre work developed through a long-term educational and creative process.
2022 — ROOM Dance Festival
Concept and artistic direction. Arroyo Theatre.
2022 — Saragini
Concept, choreography and direction. Arroyo Theatre.
2023 — Heraklion 2023
Choreographer and dancer in the creative team of the Mediterranean Beach Games opening ceremony.
2024 — Rogmi (Rift)
Concept, dramaturgy, direction and overall choreographic composition. Porta Theatre.
2025 — To_morRow / Rhythm of Awareness
A choreographic and visual movement project by LOAD Dance Company.
2026 — The Kitchen Table
Concept, dramaturgy, direction and overall choreographic composition. Katerina Vassilakou Theatre.
