Athina Vahla

Athina Vahla

 

Athina Vahla is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher and performance researcher specialising in choreography. Originally from Greece, she arrived in the UK in 1991 having won the Greek National Choreographic Award.

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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 and teacher and produced a steady stream of critically acclaimed work across Europe.

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Since 2001, Athina has concentrated on large scale, site-specific work that creates evocative environments for performers and audiences to inhabit and explore. She is particularly interested in the historical elements of site and how traces of the past inform the making of new work. Underpinning her process is a concern with humanism and contemporary society.

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Since 2011 Athina has been resident in South Africa. Her initial invitation was from The African Centre and the Infecting the City Festival in Cape Town to produce public site-specific events for two consequent years. She currently holds an Honorary Research position at Rhodes University and has been an associate lecturer to the Drama Department. Her research topic is Conflict and Catharsis in Sports and the Performing Arts. Athina's experimentation with hybrid forms of theatre and her lecturing practice stretch beyond the academic environment to the townships and the other local communities.

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Twice a year Athina returns to the UK and continental Europe, for the most part to create commissioned work and teach workshops. Also for dance institutions, she is involved in implementing curriculum changes with regards to the teaching of choreography.

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She updates her practice through collaborative projects and creative exchanges.