Irena Meletiou
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1990 – 1995
Irena has rendered her own unique style and vision which is sought after by Pop/Hip-Hop Celebrity artists to Royalty, to recording Artists. She received formal dance training at Alvin Ailey, Ballet Arts, and Broadway Dance Center. With over 15 years of teaching experience and passion in choreography, her style can be described as a fusion of Urban, Jazz, Street Jazz, Hip Hop and Latin. As a dancer, choroegrapher and a dance/ fitness instructor, Irena has been featured on VH1's reality show with "Salt & Pepa", music videos with Mary J Blige and Zumba® Fitness Artists at Zumba® Conventions. She choreographed and performed at The NYC's Madison Square Garden for the WNBA half time show and featured on Zumba® Zin DVD Volumes with Beto Perez ( Creator of Zumba® Fitness), TV shows like "The Today Show" with Zumba® and Lil Jon and "The View" with Zumba® Step and Kelly Rowland . She is certified as a Group Fitness Instructor with AFAA and ACE and her biggest accomplishment is becoming an NYC ZES™ (Zumba® Education Specialist) with the ability to train and license future Zumba® Fitness Instructors. With hundreds of followers she is now an International Presenter for Fitness Trade shows, Fitness Conventions and Master Classes Internationally with Zumba® Fitness.
Christina Sorokou
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1990 – 1995
Christina studied Dance and Psychology at the University of California – Santa Barbara. She then taught modern jazz, ballet and contemporary dance at Motion Art Studio for two years. She now has her own Center of Psychotherapy and Psychometrics in Nicosia.
Harry Mavromichalis
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1991 – 1994
Harry studied modern dance in Copenhagen and then continued his studies at the Alvin Ailey School and at Steps on Broadway. He worked as a dancer in New York for many years and in 2000 he founded his modern-dance company Dance Anonymous. From 2001 – 2011 he was the Creative Director of Dead Famous Productions, a non profit organization that organized, amongst many other, ToNY (Taste of New York Summer Intensive Dance Program). Harry is now a film director, working to finish his first feature-length documentary on Olympia Dukakis.
Elena Samara
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1990 – 2000
Elena graduated from Doreen Bird College UK with a first class degree BA Hons in Musical Theatre and Performance. She performed at the Peacock Theatre London playing the part of Hotence in "The Boyfriend". She then worked as a Performer at Eurodisney Paris afterwards returning to Cyprus where she continues to run her own Dance School in Nicosia.
Marina Poyiatzi
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1997 – 2000
Marina studied at the Rallou Manou Senior Professional School of Dance, in Athens. In 2006, she graduated with the Diploma of Dance Teacher and Dancer and is now teaching and choreographing in Cyprus.
Rania Charalambidou
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 2001 – 2002
Rania attended Jacksonville University, where she was awarded the Outstanding Freshman and Sophomore awards by the Dance Department. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Dance Education and a Math minor from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. She also trained at the Joffrey Ballet School and with Elena Kunikova at Steps on Broadway. Rania has been a company member with the Ballet Theatre of Maryland, Sarasota Ballet, Columbia City Ballet, Ballet San Antonio and currently with Boulder Ballet, in Colorado. She has danced soloist and principal parts such as Adult Clara and Arabian Pas De Deux in the Nutcracker, Princess Vasilissa in Firebird, Lead Bride in Dracula, Summer Fairy in Cinderella, Scheherazade in Scheherazade, Beauty Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, The Assistant in Matthew Bourne's Boutique etc. In 2009, Rania performed with the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Susan Stroman’s Tony-Award winning musical Contact as Trouble. Rania guest performed with a number of companies such as San Angelo Ballet, San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet, Diesel | Fusion Dance Theater, Dance Cyprus, Amfithdromo Chorotheatro, Florida Ballet, Freespace Dance etc. She also performed in the 50th anniversary celebration of the independence of Cyprus in 2010. Outside of dance, Rania is the co-owner of Long Body Yoga.
Penelope Georghiadou
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1991 – 2003
Penelope studied at the Rallou Manou Senior Professional School of Dance, in Athens. In 2006, she graduated with the Diploma of Dance Teacher and Dancer. In 2003, she was awarded the 2nd Prize at the “Eurovision for Young Dancers’’ contest and won a Ministry of Education and Culture grant to attend the New York Dance Experience. In 2010, she was among the 12 professional dancers chosen to dance for the 50th anniversary celebrations since the establishment of the Cyprus Republic. . Since 2008, she was teaching at the Motion Art Studio and in 2017 she became a co-owner of Motion Art Studio.
Angelica Georghiadou
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1990 – 2004
Angelica studied at the Laban Centre in London and later trained as a Pilates instructor. She has recently opened her own Pilates Studio in Nicosia.
Evita Elia
Period studying at the Motion Art studio: 1992 – 2003
Evita studied at the State School of Dance in Athens. She graduated with the Diploma of Dance Teacher and Dancer.
Anastasia Paschali
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1991 – 2004
Anastasia was born in Pennsylvania in 1987 to Greek-Cypriot parents. She started her classical ballet training at the Motion Art Studio in Nicosia, Cyprus, while later she continued training vocationally at the Rock School for Dance Education in Pennsylvania and the English National Ballet School in London. In February 2006, at the age of 19, Anastasia signed her first contract with The Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen and became its youngest member at the time. In 2010 Anastasia chose to challenge herself on an academic level and returned to Cyprus to enroll in the University of Nicosia’s psychology program, while also teaching at the university’s dance department. She graduated in 2013 as Valedictorian with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She also studied teaching at the Royal Academy of Dance and now holds a Professional Dancer’s Teaching Diploma. In 2013, she joined the Leipzig Ballet in Germany. In 2014, Anastasia joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders as a Demi-Soloist and was promoted to Soloist in 2016. The highlight of her career to date was the famed ‘Bolero’ by Maurice Bejart, a role which is considered among the most iconic and honoring roles. After a diverse and fulfilling career abroad, Anastasia aspires to share her knowledge, experience and love for dance with the younger generation. She is currently combining her performing with teaching and coaching in her home country, Cyprus, while also creating and managing Pascali Dancewear.
Theano Makariou
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1991 – 2004
Theano studied with full scholarship at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in London and graduated in 2007 with a First Class BA(Hons) in Dance and Theatre Performance. Her first professional job came in 2008 on the No1 UK Tour of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. A year later she landed a role in the Grammy and Tony Award Winning Musical “Wicked” which took her to Germany for the first time. Theano performed in ''Wicked'' for two and a half years, first in Stuttgart and then in Oberhausen, where she became Swing and cover Nessarose. From 2011 until 2013 Theano was involved with the European Tour of “Cats”. She played the leading role of Sillabub/Jemima and covered the roles of Jellylorum/Griddlebone, Rumpleteazer and Victoria. In the summer of 2013 she played as Lulu (Kit Kat Girl) in the musical “Cabaret” in Gelsenkirchen before she moved to Hamburg to play the main role of Meg Giry in “The Phantom of the Opera”. In the summer of 2015 she performed in “Zorro” and “Cats” at the Open Air Theatre in Tecklenburg. In December 2015 Theano played the leading role of Maria in “West Side Story” at the Opera of Wuppertal. Theano recently graduated from the Open University of Cyprus with an MA in Theatre Studies. She is thrilled to soon be joining the cast of “Mary Poppins” in Stuttgart, as Swing and cover Miss Lark.
Nefeli Tsiouti PT, MA, MSc
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1995 – 2004
Nefeli was born in Australia. She started dance in 1995 at Motion Art Studio and danced professionally in Greece & UK (2006-16). She studied: BA French Literature (University of Athens), MA Choreography (Middlesex University), MSc Dance Science (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance), Sports Massage Therapy Diploma (Sports Therapy UK) and BSc Physiotherapy (European University Cyprus). Currently she is Scientific Collaborator at the European University Cyprus Medical School, Physiotherapist at Advance Medical Centre in Nicosia & Manager of Project Breakalign, a prevention of injuries research project for dancers. Moreover, she is a dancer & Choreographer, Board Member of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS). Nefeli was awarded the Sports Therapist of the Year 2018 award by the International Federation of Holistic therapists. She won 1st Prize and Most Innovative idea Prize at the EUC-Peak Entrepreneurship competition for start-ups in 2018. Her dance training has spread from ballet to hip-hop/Breaking. She has taught in dance schools and Universities since 2006 in Greece, UK, Cyprus and provided guest lectures across Europe, USA, Canada & Hong-Kong. Nefeli has a mission of preventing injuries for dancers and has been awarded many scholarships to support this vision. She is the organiser of the Dance Science Conference in Cyprus since 2018.
Mary Kasapi
Period studying at the Motion Art Studio: 1999 – 2005
Mary studied dance at the University of Wolverhampton and received her BA (Hons) in Dance Practice and Performance and later did a Master, MSc Dance Science. She now has her own school in Nicosia.
Rafaella Kattou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 1997 – 2009
Rafaella continued her studies at the University of Surrey, from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Culture (2009-2012). In 2013 she moved to Florence, where she joined the Opus Ballet Academy, training in professional performance of contemporary and modern dance. Since January 2015, Rafaella is teaching classical ballet, modern jazz and contemporary at the Motion Art Studio.
Elina Kakoulli
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 1997 – 2011
In 2011, Elina went for further studies at the Rallou Manou Serior Professional School of Dance in Athens. In 2014, she graduated with the Diploma of Dance Teacher and Dancer. Between 2015 - 2022, Elina was part of the team of Motion Art Studio, teaching classical ballet, ‘babymotion’ and contemporary.
Evi Oikonomou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2008 – 2013
Evi graduated from the professional dance school of the Greek National Opera in June 2016. She has worked as a freelance dancer for choreographers such as Andonis Foniadakis, Rami Beer, Selena Berman, Konstantinos Rigos, Christiana Skiada, Stewart Hops, Marcella Manoliadi, Aidan Sharabi, Albert Gallindo, Linda Kapetanea and Hiroaki Umenda. She was member in professional companies such as the Greek National Opera, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel and the Uragan Dance Company in Croatia. She has worked as a choreographer in the National theatre of Greece for Director Aris Mpiniaris. She has performed in several dance Festivals worldwide such as “PAMS festival” in Seoul, “Kalamata International Dance Festival”, “Aerowaves Europe”, “Dance Days Chania”, “Athens -Epidavros Festival”, “Kuopio Dance Festival” in Finland, “Kipria Dance Festival” in Cyprus, “Colours Dance Festival” in Germany, “Hanover Dance Festival” and “Summer Nostos Festival”. She was a member of the judging committee of “National Dance Competition” in 2022. Currently she is collaborating with Andonis Foniadakis for a new piece for “Kalamata International Dance Festival”, named “Bolero”.
Konstandinos Katsoudas
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2010 – 2012 & 2013 – 2014
After his first experience with dance in Motion Art Studio, Konstandinos had the opportunity to take various classes of contemporary, lyrical, commercial, ballet and hip hop in Balettakademien in Stockholm. In 2014, he started his studies at the “State School of Dance” in Athens and later on, joined the professional dance school “Aktina” with a full scholarship. During his studies he had the chance to work with Antonis Foniadakis for Athens Festival, with Persa Stamatopoulou and Nikos Kalogerakis.
Anastasia Georgalli
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2001 – 2015
In 2015, Anastasia went for further studies at the Rallou Manou Senior Professional School of Dance in Athens. In 2019, Anastasia followed a distant learning teacher’s course with the Royal Academy of Dance while training at Motion Art Studio and in 2020, she received the Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies. She is now a Registered Teacher of the Royal Academy of Dance and since 2019, she has been a member of the Motion Art Studio team.
Charis Georgiou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2009 – 2015
Charis is currently studying at the London Studio Centre doing a BA Hons Theatre Dance degree (2015-2018).
Anastasia Anaxagorou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2007 – 2016
Anastasia was an assistant teacher at our school in 2015. She left in 2017 to study dance and musical theatre in London. She has graduated from Laine Theatre Arts in 2020 with the Trinity College’s Level 6 Diploma in Dance and Musical Theatre. She also successfully passed with an honours degree DDE ISTD examination for teaching Modern Theatre. She is the choreographer and performer for Doros Kyriakides theatre. She teaches musical theatre alongside Christoforos Christoforou and she’s also certified as a Salto-Saltanto instructor for fitness programs. She’s currently in Cyprus working as a professional dancer/performer for the new casino hotel CITY OF DREAMS in Limassol and as a dance teacher in Nicosia.
Chara- Elli Kyriakidou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2014 – 2017
In 2018, Chara started her studies at the Performers College in Essex for the prevocational course as a dancer. After her first experience with dance, Chara had the opportunity to travel around the world for many festivals and seminars including Lebanon, Germany, Greece, Amsterdam, Spain and England. She is currently in Cyprus working as a professional dancer/ performer in Nicosia, Kokkinotrymithia, and Ayia Napa.
Andrea Louca
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2007 – 2018
Andrea studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (2019 – 2022) and graduated with BA(Hons) Contemporary Dance. During her training she worked with different choreographers on a creation of a piece. Some of them are Marina Collard, Stephanie Schober and Joal Brown. In 2022 she participated in Resolution Dance Festival in London, in the production call “Wallpaper”, choreographed and directed by Giulia Roversi of MuZo Theatre Company. Currently, she is about to continue her studies at Nuova Officina della Danza a.s.d, Italy, where she will complete two professional programs ICD & Nuova X.
Marita Mouskidou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2004 – 2018
At 16 years old, Marita joined the Summer Week of Musical Theatre at Pineapple Studios in London where she was trained by professionals in the West End. Following this experience, she was offered a place at Bodywork International Company where she studied musical theatre for the year 2018-2019. During her training there, she successfully auditioned for "Chicago" the musical produced by Cambridge Theatre Company in which she landed the role of Hunyak. Marita continued her studies at De Montfort University for the years 2019-2022. At the end of year 1 she was awarded the Level 4 Highest Achieving progressing dance student prize. She graduated in August of 2022, with a first class degree in BA Dance.
Sotia Mikaella Nicolaou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2005 – 2017
Sotia continued her studies at London Studio Centre where she received her BA (Hons) Theatre Dance, Contemporary Dance.  Returning to Cyprus she followed a pilates reformer course while in parallel she practiced dancing and performing. Being in Cyprus during covid she started working both as a ballet and contemporary dance teacher and a reformer instructor, which she continues doing.  At the same time she enrolled for the Licentiate at the Royal Academy of Dance and received the Award with Distinction having spent the three years of study between Nicosia and London.  For the Licentiate she was honoured with the prestigious Iris Truscott Scholarship.
Nicol Archondides
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2005 – 2020
Nicol has completed her studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (United Kingdom) in 2023.
Antonia Tsadioti
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2016 – 2020
Antonia studied at De Montfort University in Leicester (2020-2023) and has received a BA(Honours) Dance in 2023. She was also a member of the DMU dance company and dance society.
Iris Pastou
Period studying at Motion Art Studio: 2007 – 2020
Iris graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance with a BA (Hons) Ballet Education degree, in 2023. During her studies, she taught in three different sectors: the private, public and community. Moreover, she worked with and has been taught by famous dancers, choreographers, and teachers, including one of the Royal Ballet's lead dancers, Alexander Campbell and choreographer Susan Sentler, among many others. She has enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dance Licentiate programme, allowing her to become a specialist in the RAD's work.