October 2025

The dynamics of movement
Masterclass with Athanasia Kanellopoulou

An integral part of any form of art is personal exploration, the diversity of each person’s perception and physical limitations. The body breathes, transforms, communicates, moves, feels, trusts, questions. An ambiguous universe is created, where movement and stillness, sound and silence, individuality and collectivity mix and coexist. The masterclass focuses on the musicality of the body, on the coordination and limitation of movement possibilities, in order to find new qualities and dynamics. Using personal movement and through improvisational instructions and choreographed compositions, we redefine the physicality and natural momentum of movement, discovering the freedom and different qualities that lead us to a clear perception of internal and external space.

Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Ages: 16+

Fee: 15 euro / 12 euro *
* for Akropoditi Dance & Performing Arts Centre’s students, students, unemployed

Duration: 2 hours

Athanasia Kanellopoulou is an Athens-based choreographer, dance performing artist and pedagogue, who owns a very rich history of collaborations with acclaimed choreographers and Dance Institutions around the globe. She creates her own methods from teaching into choreographing, filming, writing and collaborating with various artists from different disciplines. She is the founder of the multi-disciplinary platform and project-based Company “Athanasia Kanellopoulou Performing Arts’’, which has been supported and funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. She has lived and worked across Europe for over 18 years and has collaborated with prestigious Choreographers and Companies worldwide. Among others are: the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, where she toured with the company as a guest dancer, Les Ballets C de la B/ Koen Augustijnen, Jasmin Vardimon Company, Gregor Zoellig/Stadttheater Osnabruc, Rafaelle Giovanola- Cocoondance, Alexandra Waierstall and many others. She has choreographed more than 25 works, presenting them in festivals around the globe, and has created commission works for companies and Dance Institutions in Europe and the Middle East. She is currently living in Athens, and she is teaching Improvisation, Choreography and Repertoire Works at the School of the Greek National Opera and at the National School of Dance (KSOT).
www.athanasiakanellopoulou.com
AthanasiaKanellopoulouAK

Trial and Error – Improvisation as a Practice of Curiosity

How can we step out of habitual movement and enter a state of curious unknowing?
This workshop, led by Ildikó Tóth, opens a space for dancers and movers—both experienced and emerging—to explore improvisation as a field of inquiry, risk, and discovery.
Drawing on the Forsythe Improvisation Technologies and the choreographic research during the residency at Akropoditi, together we will investigate how restriction, delay, or fragmentation can open new pathways of movement and perception.
Participants will work with improvisation scores that challenge expectations and invite playfulness: interruptions in flow, shifts in spatial orientation, altered timing, or responses to minimal stimuli. Tasks may include isolating body parts, following impulse rather than form, or allowing stillness to become active.
Improvisation here becomes a strategy of unlearning. Rather than seeking control, we engage in a process that values uncertainty, attentiveness, and presence—the creative potential of not knowing what comes next.
The workshop emphasizes physical intelligence, perception, and curiosity. It invites professional dancers and experienced movers to deepen their improvisational tools and rediscover movement as a way of thinking through the body.

Ages: 16+

Level: Dancers as well as participants with prior movement experience

Ermira Goro – Ildikó Tóth

Ermira Goro is a choreographer, performer and movement director. From 2007 to 2018, she collaborated with the renowned DV8 Physical Theatre as a performer, teacher, and Research & Development / Choreography Assistant. In 2022, she was nominated for Outstanding Performer at The Bessies – The New York Dance and Performance Awards. Alongside creating and performing, Ermira has been invited by international organizations to develop choreographic works. Over the years, her work has been supported and presented at numerous festivals and venues in Greece and around the world, earning critical acclaim for its imaginative and distinctive approach. She is an Aerowaves Twenty25 Artist.

Ildikó Tóth is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator based in Leipzig, Germany. She studied at Codarts University in Rotterdam and pursued postgraduate studies in New York with a DAAD scholarship. She performed with artists such as Bill Young/Colleen Thomas, Susan Marshall, and Kota Yamazaki before joining The Forsythe Company (2012–2015). Her choreographic work centers on interdisciplinary collaboration and improvisation and has been presented at LOFFT – Das Theater Leipzig, Schaubühne Lindenfels, and other venues. She teaches Forsythe improvisation across Europe and in the US.

Fee: 
Full cycle (8 courses): 65 euro
Half cycle (4 courses): 40 euro
Drop in: 12 euro

* Attendance in the courses must be declared at the beginning of each course cycle.
The courses continue throughout the year.

Body Re-education Lesson
A lesson of body re-education aiming at improving mobility and functionality of the body.
Through the Feldenkrais Method, we re-educate the musculoskeletal organization of the body, which is essential for functional movement.
It benefits those who suffer from neuromusculoskeletal and chronic pain, as well as those who wish to expand their movement abilities.
The lessons are suitable for all ages and no previous experience in movement is required.

WHAT IS THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD
The Feldenkrais Method, named after the Israeli Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais who created, taught, and spread it, is a method of body re-education aimed at improving mobility. It focuses on the relationship and interaction between our nervous and musculoskeletal systems, targeting their balanced cooperation, which is essential for the ergonomics and precision of every human action. It helps the individual improve many aspects of daily life — from simple walking or sitting to performance in more demanding activities.
It uses gentle movements designed to increase range of motion, ease of movement, and the overall functionality of the human body.
It benefits people suffering from neuromusculoskeletal and chronic pain or with movement difficulties, as well as those who want to expand their movement abilities.

LESSONS
The Feldenkrais Method is applied in two ways:
A. Group Lessons – ATM (Awareness Through Movement)
In group lessons, students are invited to observe, sense, and become aware of their bodies through a structured sequence of movements and to explore a specific function. The teacher verbally guides the students by proposing simple and slow movements that promote muscular relaxation, without unnecessary effort, always within the limits of what is “easy and comfortable” for each person. This allows the individual’s posture to change through the adoption of a new movement pattern.
Established, non-functional movement habits are replaced by new abilities and awareness. The focus of attention alternates between sensation, movement, awareness, and rest. This exploration aims at learning comfortable and efficient movement.
The effect of the lessons is immediate and profound: the student learns how to learn. At the same time, vitality and efficiency in daily functions are enhanced. Muscle tone is regulated, posture is reorganized, movement gains greater range and ease, and pain is reduced or even disappears. Each lesson lasts about one hour and is a distinct unit, depending on the bodily function it addresses (e.g. spinal rotation, flexion, extension, etc.). Movements are carried out mainly lying on the floor — on the back, side, or stomach.
B. Individual Lessons – FI (Functional Integration)
These are one-on-one sessions lasting about an hour, conducted on a special table and adapted to the individual’s needs. In FI, the teacher moves the student’s body with slow and precise movements, exploring their movement habits and proposing (through touch) easier and more effective possibilities.
Practically, the student remains passive, but in reality the body absorbs and integrates this new knowledge. As a result, less mobile areas are included in overall movement, while overloaded areas are released. Even after the very first session, the student perceives that they can move differently.

BENEFITS
• Improves movement and posture.
• Identifies physical habits that strain the skeleton and hinder daily life.
• Reduces pain in the lower back, neck, shoulders, back, knees, and more.
• Contributes to injury rehabilitation and teaches how to prevent injuries in the future.
• Improves coordination between body parts, facilitating movement, balance, and breathing.
• Revives forgotten movements of the body.
• Offers a sense of well-being and relaxation.
• Teaches better management of stressful situations without creating tension in the body.
• Helps us to better know ourselves through movement, to discover new possibilities, and to evolve.

WHO IT IS FOR
The Feldenkrais Method is suitable for all ages. It is recommended for people who suffer from chronic neuromusculoskeletal pain or have movement difficulties, for pregnant women, and for anyone wishing to expand their movement abilities, improve daily life, and strengthen body and mind.
Musicians, actors, athletes, and dancers enhance their abilities and creativity. Older adults are supported in maintaining or regaining the ability to move without effort, difficulty, or pain.

What to bring: a yoga mat, comfortable warm clothing, socks, a small blanket, and a pillow.

Vasso Giannakopoulou (www.vassogiannakopoulou.gr) was born in Athens. She studied dance at D. Grigoriadou’s school, at the preparatory program of the State School of Dance (K.S.O.T.), and graduated from the Center of Performing Arts. She dedicated herself to the study of the human body, which led her to her later training in the Feldenkrais Method. Since 1990, her dance career has been enriched by her participation in international productions and her teaching of contemporary dance.
Her first choreographic work, NightMirror (2003), was presented at the Kalamata International Dance Festival and the Athens Dance Festival. Together with Tasos Palaioroutas, she founded the Dalika Dance Theater (2004). Her works Digono, Fyllo kai Ftero, Pouthena, Eugenis Apodraseis, Maria Goes to the River, Pythonos 36, Flutter, have been presented at international dance festivals in Greece and abroad.
She was part of the choreographic team of the 2004 Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the opening ceremony of the European Games in Baku 2015, under the artistic direction and staging of D. Papaioannou.
She co-founded the Dance Association, through which a series of actions, choreographic workshops, and performances were realized at the Kalamata International Dance Festival, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, and in theaters across Greece.
She has directed movement in theater performances with directors including D. Xanthopoulos, D. Olbrychski, G. Mavraganis, N. Foskolou, among others.
She is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and teaches group and individual Feldenkrais lessons regularly in Syros and Athens. She has also led seminars in Zurich, Nafplio, Tinos, Heraklion (Crete), Patras, Aegina, Larissa, Chios, and in the professional dance schools of the Greek National Opera and Aktina.