Antigone Gyra

Antigone Gyra created the company KINITIRAS dance spectacle in 1996 with which she has choreographed dozens of works to date, with grants from the Ministry of Culture and other institutions or independently, which have been presented in Greece and abroad.

From 2008 to 2019 she coordinated the first residency centre for performing arts in Greece, which offered on the cultural map of Athens research events, artists’ exchanges and artistic hospitality (www.kinitiras.com).

With Kinitiras she brings dance and physical theatre to primary and secondary education while organizing Erasmus+ youth exchange programs with the aim of social awareness (lgbtq+, refugees, hate speech etc.). In the last two years, she carried out two choreographic researches (Femininity in transition, Contemporary Dance and Third Age) with the support of foreign bodies and the Ministry of Culture.

She has collaborated with important directors and groups at the National Theatre and the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. She teaches movement and choreography in vocational schools.

Peter Hussey

Peter Hussey is a theatre-maker and an actor-trainer. He founded Crooked House in 1993. He makes theatre collaboratively from the experiences, opinions and socio-political ideas of the ensemble with whom he works. He directs plays and trains actors for third level programmes in Maynooth University (Ireland), Drama Studio London and European universities.

Lia Chamilothori

Lia Chamilothori was born in Athens in 1985 and she was athlete of rhythmic gymnastics and acrobatics for several years. After graduating from the Athens University of Economics and Business (ASOEE), she studied dance at "Rallou Manou" from where she graduated in 2010 with honors. In 2011 she received a scholarship from Onassis Foundation for tecnique improvement in Brussels, Belgium (Danscentrum Jette), where for two years she attended several masterclasses and she collaborated with various dance groups.
As a dancer she has collaborated with various groups in Greece and abroad (Cie la ignorancia, Carmen Blanco Principal, And yet it moves, Proschima, Ermira Goro, Athanasia Kanellopoulou, Creo dance company, Kinitiras dance, 58plus3danceco, Krama, Transito etc.), she was a member of the Greek participation in the European programme Homme @ home (choreographer Polina Kremasta) through the dance center I. R. Duncan and she was assistant choreographer in the group Φora etc (Menti Mega). 
She teaches movement, dance and acrobatics Athens Conservatoire Drama School and at Professional Dance school Choroxronos and she is coordinator of Kinitiras youth Programme the last four years. She recently graduated from the Department of Spanish Language and Literature of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Christos Polymenakos

Christos Polymenakos is a creator, performer, researcher and educator, creator of the body/word – Performance Writing method. He is a Diomedes Photiades Upper Drama School graduate and holds an MA in Performance Writing (Merit) from University College Falmouth Incorporating Dartington College of Arts, where he studied with a scholarship from the Hellenic Centre for Theatre and Dance. 

Christos has been developing and applying the body/word method in the field of Performance Writing as practiced in Dartington College of Arts, since 2010, in creation and dramaturgy, in teaching dramaturgy, improvisation, acting, critical analysis and feedback for professionals, amateurs and students, ages 10-84. His creative, research, editorial, mentoring and educational work has been hosted by state and private artistic and educational institutions and festivals in Greece, Finland, Slovenia, France, Portugal, Germany, Cyprus, the UK and online.

www.christospolymenakos.com    

Aphrodite Vervenioti

Aphrodite Vervenioti was born in Athens, Greece. She graduated from the State School of Dance of Greece (2002) and from Rotterdamse Dansacademie where she danced with Gabriel Staiger, Ann van de Broek, Itzik Gallili (Codarts University 2005) and from PG/MA Choreography, Tilburg, Holland (2007). She received scholarships from the National Foundation of Scholarships in Greece (2004) and Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Tradition, Massachusetts, U.S.A. She danced pieces of Jiri Kylian, Batsheva Dance Company, Preljocaj Dance Company (2002). She also received scholarship for attending classes with Robert Stein, Pact Zolverein, Essen, Germany (2004).

She started practicing hip-hop dance at the age of 10 in her hometown Athens, Greece. She has attended hip-hop dance seminars in USA, The Netherlands, France, Belgium. She dances in contemporary dance companies in Greece and abroad. She teaches dance (hip-hop and contemporary) since 2007 in several dance schools in Greece. She is a priestess at the Ceremony of the Olympic Flame since 2009. She has choreographed theatrical plays and some of her own productions (Sargam 2007, Lost Thought 2008, Alternative 2008, Towards I 2010 and Towards II 2013) in Greece and abroad.

From the age of 10 years old she has been learning hip-hop dance. Since then she has attended seminars in France, The Netherlands and U.S.A. She teaches hip-hop dance since 2007 in dance schools in Greece nad she gives seminars abroad.

She is a member of Kinitiras Network for performing arts since 2004, in which she has danced for 1896 , Lycisrtata’s Cry outdoors dance performances during the Olympic Games Athens 2004,  Plektani dance performance tour in Greece 2008, Handle with care 2010, Surprise the circus that fell asleep outdoors performance in primary schools 2012, truth or dare outdoors performance in secondary schools 2019, co leading with Antigone Gyra in Erasmus Youth Exchange Programs in Ireland and in Spain 2017-2018.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Aphroditevervenioti

Georgina Kakoudaki

 Georgina Kakoudaki is a theatre theorist and director. Since 2009, she has been directing youth theatre performances and collaborated with over 30 theatre and dance companies as a dramaturg. She is teaching in numerous public and international organizations specializing in educating adults through theatre and film. She has taught film dramaturgy and aesthetics at the AKMI IEKschool (2006-2011). She was head of the National Theatre of Greece Library and Archive (1997-2004). She co-wrote the books: Theatre education for adults (IDEKE 2007) and Paths of Experiential Learning (Kedros publications 2011). She is the author of the Arts Schools Students' Course book specializing in Theatre Directing and Film Directing (IEP 2015)  and Film Aesthetics (ΙΕP 2015) and organized large number of New Artists festivals alongside a series of organizations and theatres in Greece.
From 2016 to 2019 she was the curator of the Educational Programs of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival and the Artistic Director of the Epidaurus Lyceum, an international school for actors focusing on ancient drama. She collaborates with Olympia International Festival for Children and Young People/Pitching Ideas, Drama International Film Festival/ Pitching Lab and with Athens International Children Film Festival. Since 2021 she is the Artistic Director of the summer school for ancient drama Summer Oracle (Municipal Theatre of Ioannina/ Dodona).

Aria Boumpaki

Aria Boumpaki is a dance artist who lives and works in Athens. She studied dance in Athens and then continued her training at Ex.e.r.ce MA choreographic research program at Ici-Ccn (Montpellier, France), as a scholar of Onassis Foundation.

Her artistic works are characterized by the question of community. Exploring dance bodies in different realities, she drifts from conventional stage pieces to exhibitions, site-specific works, community projects, writing formats and video installations. She quite often invites non-professionals to explore/ redefine “stage bodies” and the reality of “being“ and introduces tenderness as revolution.

She has collaborated with festivals in Greece and abroad (Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Cultural Center, Centre Pompidou …) and her latest projects are supported by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports. In 2020 she was a danceweb scholar for IMPULSTANZ -Vienna International Festival and one of the awarded artists by ARTWORKS, SNF Artist Fellowship Program.

Dora Zoumpa

Dora Zoumpa is a choreographer, dancer and dance teacher. Dora graduated from the Professional School of Dance ‘Rallou Manou’ (2010). In 2016 she also graduated from the School of Fine Arts, Department of Fine Arts and the Sciences of Arts (University of Ioannina). Currently, she is a postgraduate student of the same department attending the MA programme, Curation: Theoretical and Practical Approaches.
Since 2012, Dora has been a founding member of krama dance company with which she choreographed and performed several dance projects. She is also a co-founding member of the dance studio krama artspace, Athens.
Dora has collaborated with the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Ioannina as a choreographer, as a performer and as a teacher of movement in theatrical plays (2015-2016). Since 2016 she has been collaborating with the School of Architecture of the University of Ioannina giving theoretical, practical and experiential workshops on dance practices.
In 2019, Dora participated in the group exhibition ‘Textured Hi Stories: ReMembering’ (Mekeio Foundation of Ioannina), with the mixed media work ‘Wood Substance’.
In 2020, with the support of Flux Laboratory she launched the artistic and collaborative project Reforesting, a symbiotic artistic endeavour that revolves around moving bodies and their relationships with each other as well as with plants, soil, air, and the rest of what is called the ‘natural environment’ (http://www.fluxlaboratory.com/en/programme/reforesting-3695).
Dora lives and works between urban and nature and her interests centre around moving bodies, participatory artistic and choreographic approaches, the ‘natural environment’, regenerative agriculture, fruit and seed collection and cooking.

Silvia Pezzarossi

Silvia Pezzarossi is a dancer, teacher, choreographer and massage therapist of italian origin, based in Belgium where she lives since several years. After a long training in ballet dance Silvia discovers and studies contemporary dance first in Italy then in Switzerland and finally in Belgium. While collaborating with several artists and choreographers she begins to develop her own language and artistic universe which prompt her to create her first creations and performances for the theater as well as for urban/site specific spaces. Rich in different experiences, teachings and artistic influences, Silvia develops her own pedagogical practice of dance improvisation based on movement qualities, physical states, images, the theater and the absurd. Thus she gives life to DIVE. Silvia teaches DIVE in various artistic realities of Brussels but has also traveled to Turkey, Italy, France and soon, Greece.