AKROPODITI DANCE AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE

The Akropoditi Dance & Performing Arts Centre operates in Syros since January 2013. The two connected buildings used by the Centre consist of one Studio for lessons and the Workshop Centre for artistic activities and events.

The primary goal of the Studio is to create an appropriate environment for familiarization and contact with classical dance and with different aspects of contemporary dance, but also in general with the research process in the field of movement and expression. At the same time, the Studio hosts alternative forms of physical exercise and rehabilitation.

The main objectives of the Workshop Centre are the cultural development and promotion of the island, hosting and organising artistic and educational programs, hosting performances and providing artistic residency to creators from around the world. The space is open to partnerships with local organisations, residents, and artists of Syros, as well as the rest of the country and other countries, inviting people of all ages to participate in its activities.

Apart from the actions related to the dance and performing arts, the Centre offers housing to any other form of art, expression, and creation. Preconditions of all activities are to support the cultivation of spirit and body, free creation, individual and group initiative through any action that contributes to the fulfilment and the development of perceptual and expressive possibilities.

Angeliki Sigourou

Artistic Direction and Administration
Born in Athens, in 1973. She holds a degree from the department of French Language and Philology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, a master’s degree in Linguistics of the Southeastern Mediterranean from the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean, and a PhD in Arabic Dialectology from the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean. She studied the Arabic language in Greece, Egypt, and Jordan. She also studied acting at the “ARCHI” Drama School in Athens. She has attended various theatre and dance classes and seminars in Greece and abroad. In 2004, she founded the Akropoditi Dancetheatre in Hermoupolis, Syros. Since then, she has directed and choreographed all the performances of Akropoditi. In January 2013, she founded Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre in Hermoupolis, Syros. She has published two poetic compilations and her poems have been translated to English, French, German, Turkish and Arabic. She has translated and published literature and poetry works from French and Arabic. She lives in Syros, where she has taken over the artistic direction of Akropoditi Dance & Performing Arts Centre. She is a member of the artistic board for the administration and the management of the International Dance & Performing Arts Festival Akropoditi DanceFest. She works as a choreographer and translator, while at the same time she is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of the Aegean – Department of Mediterranean Studies.

Ariadni Psychogiopoulou

Artistic Direction and Administration
Born in Patras, in 1985. She studied Psychology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has completed postgraduate studies at ILS College (Poona, India) on the subject of “Legal and Human Rights in Mental Health” and she is a member of the Greek Observatory for the Rights in Mental Health and the Greek Network for supporting people who decide to quit psychiatric drugs. She graduated from the Greek State School of Dance in 2012 and worked as a teacher of classical and contemporary dance at various dance schools in Chalkidiki. She has also worked as a facilitator in camps for disabled people, children’s camps, a clinical guidance centre for children, and she has been engaged in creative home-based work for children with autism. Since 2012 she has been a member of the Akropoditi Dance Theatre. As a dancer-performer, she has participated in all the performances of the Akropoditi Dancetheatre since 2012. She also worked with the choreographer Anmar Taha and his company, Iraqi Bodies. She lives in Syros. Since January 2013 she has been teaching at the Akropoditi Dance & Performing Arts Centre, while at the same time being responsible for the artistic management of the Centre. She is a member of the artistic board for the administration and the management of the International Dance & Performing Arts Festival Akropoditi DanceFest. In 2019, she coordinated the action “Madness: Living in”, a body-centred mental health action that was presented in Syros and Naxos. She was one of the choreographers at the performance “Once upon a port…”

Dimitris Baltas

Born in Karditsa in 1982. He holds a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering. Ηis current research, as a PhD Candidate at the University of the Aegean, Products & Systems Design Engineering, is focusing on Interactive Dance Performances. His postgraduate studies include the fields of Interactive Media, Lighting Design and Digital Arts. Since 2005, he has studied contemporary dance in studios in Athens and London. He has also participated in workshops and seminars on acting. In 2014 he started training on aerial acrobatics. He has participated in performances as an actor, dancer, and acrobat. Since 2019 he is teaching aerial acrobatics in various studios in Athens. In May 2019, he presented his first choreography on aerial rope, Working Class, for the 1st Summer Circus Cabaret, Roes Theater, Athens. He has presented video and installations in festivals in Greece and abroad. He has been awarded for the co-creation of the video dance project Please Don’t Tell at the Faggio Doc Festival 2020. As a lighting designer, he has designed and curated the lighting for theater, dance performances and art installations for the National Theater, M. Cacoyannis Foundation etc. He is a member of the Apparatus group of artists. Since 2021, he is based in Syros.

Mandy Papandreou

Born in Athens, in 1966. She graduated from the University of Athens, faculty Physical Education and she is a certificated teacher of Music and Dance education (Carl Orff system- Moraitis School Athens). She has worked in private nursery schools, cultural and sports clubs, teaching children and adults music and dance, physical education, swimming and Greek traditional dances. Since 1996 she has been working in Primary and Secondary Education schools as a physical education teacher, while implementing cultural projects and projects on Creative Movement-Modern Dance and Greek Traditional Dance. Since 2002 she lives in Syros where she works as a physical educator in public secondary schools. In addition, she also works as a teacher of Creative Dance and Swimming in children and adults and as a personal trainer, implementing fitness programs in and out of the water. She teaches «Orthosomiki» and Creative Dance at the Akropoditi Dance Centre. She has attended courses in flauto dolce (Blockfloete), Greek traditional percussion, classical dance, flamengo, Jazz and Contemporary dance. She has also attended seminars in Rhythmic, mimetic, theatre movement and improvisation as well as seminars in different contemporary dance techniques and performance art (release, contact improvisation, partnering, acrobatics in dance, Creative dance, Butoh, Flying low and Passing through, Dance in water, Axis Syllabus. She is member of the Akropoditi Dancetheatre since 2005. In the performance “Once upon a port…” apart from being a performer, she also participated as a choreographer ( 8ο Akropoditi Dancefest, Syros, 9 & 19 July 20121).

Mary Varthalitou

She was born in Syros, in 1990. Graduated from the professional dance school Anna Petrova & Maro Marmarinou in 2015. During her studies, she did hip hop and took classes and seminars on popping, locking, house, heels, twerk, dancehall, commercial and new style. Also had other seminars on contemporary dance and all the classes of modern theatre ISTD.

Konstantina Thanassouli

She was born in Naousa in 1995. She studied at the Department of Chemical Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, as well as at the Higher Professional School of Dance of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, from which she graduated in 2022. Her love for dance brings together classical ballet, contemporary dance, and traditional Greek dance forms. Since 2020, through her teaching practice, she has been exploring the fusion of contemporary dance with traditional dance. From 2014 to 2019, she was a member of the L.Reducta Dance Project, participating in the Dimitria Festival and the Festival of Greek Choreographers in Thessaloniki. She also took part in Athens Video Dance and Thessaloniki Cinedance International with the video dance works TreeβιαL and No. 39–41. In 2023, she directed and choreographed Kintsugi, which was presented at the Akropoditi Dance Centre and was based on her first poetry collection of the same title, published the same year. With the performance My Beloved, Stranger…, she also participated in the Eye’s Walk Festival 2023. In 2025, she participated with the Akropoditi Dance Centre in the 21st Ryan International Children’s Festival in Mumbai, choreographing the performance R/ZA. Since 2025, she has been a member of Akropoditi Dance Theatre, having performed in the production angeliafóros. From 2022 to the present, she has been living in Syros and working at the Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre as a classical and contemporary dance teacher.

Xeni Kottaki

She was born in Rhodes in 1993 and grew up in Thessaloniki. She is a graduate from the Department of Products & Systems Design Engineering of the University of Aegean and in 2022 she also obtained her diploma from the Professional Dance School of the Municipality of Thessaloniki. She has collaborated as a performer with various choreographers such as Angeliki Sigourou, Anmar Taha, Stella Mastorosteriou, Alexandros Anastasiadis ‘Greco’, Calero Durán Clara, Rósa Ómarsdóttir etc. in various performances and video dance projects in Greece and abroad. She has attended seminars and courses on contemporary dance techniques, choreography, improvisation, physical and dance theatre, singing, Axis Syllabus, Skinner Releasing Technique and continues to do so. She is particularly interested in choreography and in June ‘23 she presented at Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre the progress of her choreographic research on attention and intention entitled “I would prefer not to.” She currently lives in Syros, teaching contemporary dance and classical ballet to children at Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre and she is a member of Akropoditi Dancetheatre Company, having performed in the productions ‘Punishment’ (2017) and ‘glossa [γlósa]’ (2018).

Niki Stergiou

Νίκη Στεργίου
Niki Stergiou has born and raised in Athens. She studied at the Higher School of Dance “Niki Kontaxaki” attending ballet and contemporary dance classes. In 2010, she meets Contact Improvisation, and she starts studying and practicing this dance form that has change her life. At the same time, she also studied somatics, authentic movement, instant composition, and improvisation. She attended a series of Axis Syllabus workshops with Frey Faust, Francesca Pedulla, Antoine Ragot. She has taken part in Contact Improvisation workshops and courses in Greece and abroad with Nancy Stark Smith, Nita Little, Ray Chung, Martin Keogh Angela Doniy, Benno Voorham, Yaniv Mintzer and others great teachers and has participated in many Contact Improvisation festivals in Germany, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, and Greece. In 2012, she took part to the performance “Mind the walls” (Brighton Fringe Festival, UK) and the performance “Present bodies in Contact” (co-creation of the choreographers Ch. Klissiouni and T. Nikolopoulou). Since then, she started performing in formal and informal contexts dedicated to Contact Improvisation and Instant Composition and she had a permanent collaboration with the choreographer Teti Nikolopoulou and her dancing group “Enniamorfo”. Since 2014 she started offering classes and workshops of Contact Improvisation and organizing jams and workshops with teachers from abroad. In September 2015 she participated in the 1st Meeting of Greek Teachers of Contact Improvisation. The summer of 2022, she was trained and certified in ContaKids method by the founder, Itay Iatuv, in Belgrade (Serbia). She lives in Syros Island and is a mother of two children.

Maria Menti Mermigi

Born in 1982 in Athens. After completing her studies in Social Anthropology in 2005, she travelled abroad attending seminars and courses in contemporary dance and improvisation. Returning to Athens, she completed the BA in Dance Performance (collaboration of IEK Akmi with Roehampton University). Since 2010, she has taught contemporary dance in various studios in Athens as well as at Scoop Move, a pilates and dance studio which she co-managed from 2014 to 2020. She has participated in dance performances (Michaels Kakoyannis Foundation, Rabbithole Theater, Roes, etc.) Due to an injury in 2012-13, she began attending Iyengar Yoga classes with Xenia Themeli. She appreciated this practice immensely and systematically implemented it in her life. Since 2019-20, she has been attending Ali Dashti’s zoom classes and seminars and is in her second year of mentorship (Iyengar yoga-level 1) with him.

Vasso Gianakopoulou

She was born in Athens. She studied dance at the D. Grigoriadou School of Dance, at the preparatory program of the State School of Dance (K.S.O.T.) and graduated from the Centre for Performing Arts. Her dedication to the exploration of the human body led her to further studies in the Feldenkrais Method. Since 1990, her career in dance has expanded through 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. In 2004, together with lighting designer Tasos Palaioroutas, she founded the dance theatre company Dalika. Her works Digono, Fyllo kai Ftero, Pouthena, Noble Escapes, Maria Goes to the River, Pythonos 36, and Flutter have been presented at international dance festivals in Greece and abroad. She was part of the choreographic team for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and for the Opening Ceremony of the Baku 2015 European Games, under the artistic direction of Dimitris Papaioannou. She was also a founding member of the Dance Association, with which she carried out a wide range of activities, choreographic workshops, and performances at the Kalamata International Dance Festival, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, as well as in theatres and cultural events across Greece. She has directed movement in theatre productions with directors including D. Xanthopoulos, D. Olbrychski, G. Mavraganis, N. Foskolou, among others. She is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and regularly teaches both group and individual Feldenkrais lessons in Syros and Athens. She has led workshops in Zurich, Nafplio, Tinos, Heraklion (Crete), Aegina, Larissa, Patras, and Chios, as well as at the professional dance schools Aktina and the Greek National Opera. vassogiannakopoulou.gr

Christina Rokou

Born in 1968 in Athens, she studied internal design and advertising and dealt with the making of handcrafted gifts. After years of practice, she decided to pursue a professional career in Yoga. In 2012, she completed the teaching program in Hatha Yoga, the fundamental and primary form of yoga, at Yoga Studio, Maroussi, with the Master of Yoga Olga Alexiou and in 2013 she completed her training in Yoga for children, at Rainbow Yoga Kids Certified. Since 2012, she has been working as a Yoga instructor in Athens from which the last seven years at Syros. She also teaches exercises to adults over 60 years of age. With her experience, beyond the classic yoga system, she emphasizes on physical and mental wellness and mixes her technique with fitness exercises and pilates.