Athina Vahla is a London based independent artist and lecturer. Originally from Athens, she arrived in London in 1991, having won the Greek National Choreographic Award.

In London, Athina was awarded two scholarships to further her dance studies at Laban (where she received the Bonnie Bird choreography award 1994) before undertaking an MA in interdisciplinary arts at Middlesex University. Since then, she has worked extensively as a choreographer, animateur and teacher and produced a steady stream of critically acclaimed work across the UK and Europe.

Since 2001, Vahla has concentrated on large scale, site-specific work including HOUSE OF KURTZ, a promenade event for the Master Shipwright’s House in Deptford and WRESTLING AN ANGEL which was performed in two sites - the Old Operating Theatre at St Thomas’s hospital in Borough and a deserted abbatoir in Clerkenwell. http://onesquareyard.com/localExamples/houseOfKurtz/

Athina’s work is epic in scale, creating evocative environments for performers and audience to inhabit and explore. She has an interdisciplinary approach, working with a range of talented collaborators, resulting in multi-media pieces that are rich in symbolism and visual imagery.

“A dream’s fuzzy surreality and yet a singular clarity of intent”

 Sunday Telegraph on LABYRINTH

Vahla is particularly keen to explore the intention underpinning the theatrical gesture as well as the space in-between actions. Her specialisation in dance requires a painstaking process in the creation of movement. She is interested in creating live paintings which the spectator can enter and inhabit, immersing themselves in a live experience of dislocation.

 In 2005, Vahla undertook research on Renaissance painting focusing on the Old Masters’ techniques as a spatial design tool for stage and site-specific work and visited Italy guided by Renaissance art specialists. This research has profoundly effected her artistic vision and is the framework within which she constructs most of her live work.

Athina has been artist in residence at Greenwich Dance Agency since 2001 www.greenwichdance.org.uk . She is an Artsadmin Associate Artist www.artsadmin.co.uk

“I believe that, in order to talk to people about the innocence we have lost as a human race, passive in the face of our wars and destruction, I have to try to talk to the child within and re-locate the dormant place of innocence. I create fairytales made of fragile and hard material, aiming to gently shake and confuse. This, I think, is my role as an artist and this is why my creativity is not limited to my own work but also evolves in class through an active role in education.”