Who We Are?

Still Pilgrim Paradox is a contemporary dance company founded in Athens in 2013 by dancer and choreographer Stella Fotiadi. 

The company focuses on: expressivity and communication through the art of dancing,  extraversion, research and experimentation, expansion of the audience, giving special attention to young audiences.   

The company counts five productions so far: The performances "Hands/Χέρια" (2005), "Unspoken" (2016), "Seeking Bliss" (2017), "A dancing journey" (2023) and the videodance "Whispers and wishes" (2016). Since 2019 Still Pilgrim Paradox/Stella Fotiadi organizes and leads dance actions for kids and teenagers/primary and secondary schools ("What if we just dance?", "Dancing, rolling, spinning, flying" and "Here I am.Dancing", "We are all dancers", "Fall, Rise, Dance"), with the financial support and under the aegis of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, the funding of Flux Laboratory Athens(Dancing, rolling, spinning, flying), in collaboration with Duncan Dance Center and the Experimental Pedagogy Lab of the Faculty of Primary Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. 

Stella Fotiadi (choreographer/dancer/dance instructor)

Stella Fotiadi is a dancer/performer, choreographer, founder of the dance company Still Pilgrim Paradox and an active dance educator, specializing in contemporary dance, improvisation and creative movement for children, teenagers and adults. She teaches in dance schools, dance studios, schools, as well as as an external partner of the Inter-University Postgraduate Program "Social Neuroscience, Social Pedagogy, and Education" of the University of Athens (UoA), in the context of the experiential workshops of the program and with the object of "socio-pedagogical inclusion through the use of dance". In addition, she has participated as an invited speaker in the interdisciplinary week of Early Childhood Education (UoA) on the topic of “dance in education” (2022) and in the good practices week of the Inter-University Postgraduate Program "Communication and Information Technologies for Education" of UoA on the topic of “embodied learning in school education using digital technologies” (2023).

She is a graduate of the Rallou Manou Higher Professional School of Dance (2006), the Department of Communication and Media of UoA (2007) and a  second-year postgraduate student of the "Information and Communication Technologies for Education" program, which is implemented with the cooperation of the  department of Early Childhood Education (UoA), the department of Communication and Media (UoA), the Architectural Engineering department of the University of Thessaly and the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the University of Western Attica. In addition to her studies in dance, she has studied with a large number of renowned teachers in Greece and abroad.

Having worked as a dancer/performer with various choreographers and dance companies (LaborGras, Howard Katz, Jessica Jobaris, Sybille Mueller, Willie Dorner, Aletta Collins/National Opera, Panic Theatre, Stella Zannou, Apostolia Papadamaki, National Opera, Mariela Nestora, Maro Grigoriou, Dagipoli dance theater, Androniki Marathaki), and having done a series of independent choreographic works, she founded the contemporary dance company Still Pilgrim Paradox in 2013. The company has so far realized three dance productions ("Hands", "Unspoken", "Seeking Bliss") and the video dance "Whispers and Wishes", which was screened at various international video dance festivals.

Her research interest revolves around the ways of expanding the impact of the art of dance, both artistically and educationally, giving special emphasis in the last few years to young audiences, as well as around the interdisciplinary connection of dance with other subjects, mainly in the context of the educational process.

From 2019 until today, she designs and implements with her company educational and artistic programs ("What if we just dance?", "Dancing, rolling, spinning, flying", "Here I am.Dancing", "We are all dancers", “Fall, Rise, Dance”) for children and teenagers/primary and secondary schools, under the auspices and with the financial support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, in collaboration with Duncan Dance Research Center, the support of Flux Laboratory Athens (2021), having received twice the approval of the Ministry of Education. These programs aim, beyond bringing children and teens into contact with the contemporary artistic creation, to cultivate a spirit of cooperation and acceptance within the school environment. They include a dance performance followed by an open feedback discussion, enriched with elements of collaborative learning and movement improvisation.

 

Aleksis Fousekis (dancer/collaborator)
Mary-Fofi Anestou (dancer/collaborator)

 

 

MIna Ananiadou (dancer/collaborator)
Alexandros Laskaratos (dancer/dance educator/collaborator)
Candy Karra (dancer/collaborator)
Anastasia Valsamaki(dancer/dance educator/collaborator)
Anna Anousaki(dancer/dance educator/collaborator)
Paraskevi Tektonidou (dramaturg/collaborator)
Aidi Ormeni (dancer/dance educator/collaborator)
Aggelos Prekatsounakis (dancer/dance educator/collaborator)
Petros Nikolidis (dancer/dance educator/collaborator)
Xenia Stathouli (dancer, dance educator, collaborator)
Giorgos Karabelas (skater, educator, collaborator)