The Metropolis of Boston Dance Group (MYDG) is a not-for-profit Greek folk dance group founded in 1989 by Niki Dimotaki-Sokolove under the auspices of His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios and is the only dance group in North America certified by the Dora Stratou Dance Theatre of Athens, Greece.The mission established by founder Niki Dimotaki-Sokolove and His Eminence was to instill the culture and tradition of Hellenism and the appreciation of this great heritage in the Greek Orthodox youth of...

Yia Mas is founded by Greek American Kristina Maria Headrick. After witnessing the effects of Greece's devastating financial crisis on friends and family, Kristina felt compelled to share more about the country's culture and support Greece by bringing Greek wellness products to America.  Yia Mas marries Kristina's Greek upbringing with her research on Greek philosophy, dance, design, and culture. Kristina's curiosity and appreciation for self-inquiry inspire her to share Greek folk remedies...

Kaeli McEnteer was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina and has been Greek dancing for 15 years. She has just begun directing, having just concluded her first year as director of the Raleigh adult dance troupe “Ischis”. She grew up heavily involved with her home parish of Holy Trinity where her passion for dance was unlocked. Over the years Kaeli has expanded her knowledge of traditional dance through her former directors, going to HDF, doing her own research, attending workshops, and...

Andonis Platis is the adult director for Orpheus Hellenic Folklore Society based out of Chicago, IL. A seasoned cardiac medical device professional, he began his career as a perfusionist and researcher in the field of heart failure while also teaching for the community of Saint Demetrios in Tucson, AZ; his hometown. His “καταγωγή” is from the Axaia region near Aigio and Kalavryta. Since college, Andoni found Greek dance as a passionate hobby with on-going research and field studies with...

Zaharoula Zogopoulos was born in New York City. She began her Greek folk dance studies while attending the St. Demetrios Day School of Astoria, NY where the love of Hellenic traditions was instilled in her from a young age. She began choreographing her highschool Greek Dance Team and performed with the Pan-Macedonian Association of New York. Parallel to her Greek folk dancing, she continued to train in classical dance in NYC. She went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Drama, Theater, Dance...

Michael grew up in Salt Lake City, UT and from the age of 8 is where he discovered his love and passion for Greek Dancing. Fast forward over 20 years later, Michael still has that passion. Michael has participated in the GOYA dance groups, Dionysios College aged dance group, and the Minotavros Cretan dance groups in Salt Lake City. After his time in the youth groups was complete, he has since became an instructor for the youth dance groups to pass on the traditions to younger generations and...

Nektarios S. Antoniou, is the new Principal Cantor of the Ascension Cathedral, Oakland, is a member of the American Academy of Composers, Authors and Publishers, writes & produces Music for PBS' "The Life of Loi". He is the Founding & Artistic Director of Schola Cantorum (which recorded the encyclopedic: “A Story of the City: Constantinople-Istanbul” with a Grammy Award winning and nominated cast). He produced, curated the Byzantine Music for the "Augmented Realities Series" for the...

Maria and Nikos sat down with Stacie and Stavros, competition and FIT chairs of the Hellenic Dance Festival to chat about HDF2024 and more! For more information please visit www.hellenicdancefestival.com and hdf_weekend on Instagram and Facebook. https://www.hellenicdancefestival.com

To learn more about the South Florida Greek Film Festival, including sponsorship information and how to submit a film, visit: https://hellenicculturalsocietyofsouthflorida.org Saturday October 14Savor Cinema: 503 SE 6th Street, Ft Lauderdale6:00pm red carpet6:45pm movie 123 minFollowed by reception sponsored by Souvlaki.gr (http://souvlaki.gr/) Eftihia: The story of songwriter Eftyhia Papagiannopoulou (1893-1972), who escaped the burning of Smyrna and journeyed to Athens, Greece, where she...

Ο Στέφανος Πελεκανής, ο νεαρός καλλιτέχνης της Παράδοσης που ξεχώρισε και αγαπήθηκε για τις ιδιαίτερες ερμηνείες του αλλά και το ξεχωριστό ηχόχρωμά του είναι ένας νεαρός ερμηνευτής της παραδοσιακής και εκκλησιαστικής μουσικής, φιλόλογος και μουσικός που τιμά την παράδοση και έχει ήδη συνεργαστεί με σπουδαία ονόματα στο χώρο της παραδοσιακής μουσικής κάνοντας περιοδείες σε ολόκληρη την Κύπρο και έχει εμφανιστεί σε διάφορες τηλεοπτικές και ραδιοφωνικές εκπομπές σε Ελλάδα και Κύπρο. Γεννήθηκε...

Gabriella Papatzimas, born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, has always had a strong connection to her Greek heritage. Growing up in the Greek community at Holy Trinity in Phoenix, she embraced the language, culture, and traditions from an early age. As a first-generation Greek-American, Gabriella’s first language is Greek, and she takes immense pride in her roots. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Arizona State, Gabriella embarked on a career in Real Estate Tech as...

Katherine Papadimitriou Ladikos was born and raised and still lives in Atlanta, GA. At the age of 4, she and her brother Dimitri were dragged from Saturday Morning Cartoons to meet with a woman named Eleni that would teach them Greek Dancing inside the dining room of a restaurant. Who knew from both sides that one simple dance of Kastorianos would take a full day to master and turn into a lifetime of love for Greek Folk Dancing. Katherine & Dimitri would perform their duet for a few years...

Kostas Mitsis was born in 1975, in Munich/Germany and moved to Preveza/Greece in 1976, where traditional dance and music held a significant role in his everyday life. He studied Agriculture at the Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki and Greek Dance and Songs at Lykeion ton Ellinidon of Athens and several other institutions. He speaks Greek, English and German. Kostas has devoted his career to the rich musical and dance traditions of Greece. He is involved for 36 years in the traditional...

Meredith Panayotopoulos was introduced to and fell in love with all things Greek dancing and culture in college when she met her husband George. She spent 10+ years dancing, directing and co-general directing in San Jose, California. She was blessed to be invited with her dance group to Florina in the summer of 2015, where her love and passion for passing on the beautiful traditions of Greek dance and customs was deepend immensly. From the start she had an affinity for costumes and all of...

Dimitri Carabas is a Composer currently living in Astoria, Queens. He attended The University of Nevada Las Vegas where he earned a Bachelors in Classical Music Composition. There, his writing focused on Post-Romantic and Minimalist styles. With a growing interest in merging Classical writing and Electronics he set his eyes on a Technology degree after his Undergrad. It was in Valencia, Spain where he would earn a Masters in Music Technology, Production, and Innovation from the Berklee...

We sat down with dance giants to record the first installment of our dance etiquette series. Unofficially we like to call this 'don't be a D on the dance floor'. It's an episode where we bring the voices of many to table to discuss dance etiquette and how the culture in the United States may have influenced dance culture. A giant thank you to our panel guests: Stacie Zoumberakis Aris Yortzidis Dimitrios Dallas Joe Graziosi Episode Music: Endasi

We sat down for a great conversation with Maria Koulouris Glanz and Christos Pantieras of Ethos Greek Folklore Association based out of Ottawa, Canada. They shared with us their journeys in Greek dance, and how Ethos is supporting the preservation of Hellenic Folklore today. You can learn more about Ethos using the link below. Maria and Christos, we loved having you on, and can't wait to chat again about some of the deeper topics that did not fully make it into this...

Rania Samartzis- born in NYC, moved to Athens, Greece until I was 8 yo, then moved to Port Richey, FL and currently living in Palm Harbor,FL. My mom is from Kastoria (Macedonia) and my dad is Athenian (his mom from Smyrna & his dad from Thiva). 
I started dancing when i was in school in Greece as part of the school curriculum, then when we moved to Florida with my family, i joined the local church dance group with my brother. As my brother went into college, the group did not have a...

Joe Kaloyanides Graziosi, from the Boston area, has done extensive research on regional dance in Greece and among Greek communities in the U.S. Drawn to Greek music and dance from a young age Joe was an enthusiastic participant in the Greek church dance and New England area community music scene and danced and taught in the Boston area amateur dance groups “Helios Dancers” and “Meraklides” in the latter 1970s after returning from a semester abroad program in Greece in 1975 where he did dance...

The man who needs no introduction, 54Thirty himself, joined me on this week's podcast. We had a good time talking about Greek dance and 900 other things. Enjoy!

We had an absolutely amazing time with the Zoumberakis family! Don't miss some outtakes at the end of the episode! Check out Stacie's bio below: Anastacia (Stacie) Zoumberakis has been involved in The Metropolis of San Francisco’s Folk Dance Festival Ministry for over 30 years.  Starting her Greek dance career at 7 years old, she continued dancing for 20 years, ten of which were with the Olympian dancers.  She has directed for over 20 years, including groups of all different ages, including...

John Peppes was born in Athens, Greece, and came to America at a young age. He was raised in Tarpon Springs, Florida – a community populated largely by individuals of Greek descent, allowing him to be exposed to the Greek culture all throughout his youth. At the age of six, John started dancing with the St. Nicholas church dance group. Years later, this group would eventually become the Levendia Dance Troupe in Tarpon Springs, Florida under the direction of John Lulias. In the summer of 1983,...

Caterina Vasilaki was born and raised in Athens, Greece. She has been dancing ever since she can remember herself. At first following her yiayia and aunts at various panigiria in the Epirus region (homeland to her mother) during the summer vacations and then taking ballet classes in Athens. Then she got in touch with Latin dancing and how dance can be a part of everyday life in a trip she took in Latin America. As a kindergarten teacher employed by the Greek state she moved around different...

Panayotis (Paddy) League is a performer, composer, ethnomusicologist, and author specializing in the traditional music, oral poetry, and dance of the Greek Aegean islands (as well as Northeast Brazil, the West of Ireland, and the wide world of electric guitar music). He focuses in particular on the violin, laouto (steel-string lute), and tsambouna (goatskin bagpipe) music of Kalymnos and Western Crete, performing and recording throughout Greece and the diaspora and publishing widely in...