STUDENTS & GRADUATES WORDS AND MEMORIES

In 2016 I was accepted in the Preparatory section at the National School of Dance in Athens, under the direction of a wonderful woman and artist with vision, Pavlina Veremi. My joy was great. At the same time, however, I was not aware of what was happening to me… The National School of Dance, the life at it, served as a great lesson in terms of my relationship with the art of dancing and the dance in me. I learned a lot from every professor. I loved them all, I never criticized them; I simply worked and worked. These hardships were so beautiful…
The National School of Dance gave me strength. There I learned to observe and learn the body language. It is a special art, a different art, to be able to observe and to know how to. It is a constant relationship with freedom; it is a different form of life… This art of observation helped me a lot at the National School of Dance. It is an incredible place, with incredible people. This place, these people, possess something that enables you to become special, truly and deeply sensitive, through confrontations, different truths, and demands…
I was lucky to have met all these wonderful people in Greece, who each in their own way helped me to become what I am today. This “thank you” is not just a figure of speech; it comes from the depths of my heart.
A few words about Pavlina Veremi:
How precious her help was! She disposed a place for me, where I could keep my belongings. Until then, I was scattered in pieces, I had no kind of base. It is very important to have a base, a space of one’s own, the sense of home that even the simplest space can provide a base, a home that even a simple house can offer you.
I started dancing with the Hellenic Dance Company already in my first year of studies at the National School of Dance. This was wonderful, because it enabled me to assimilate so many hours of dance into my body, mind and soul. This has been the cocoon and take-off of my artistic life journey.

Sunday 10/7/2016

The first time I climbed these stairs. Creation, hope, life, National School of Dance. The dream that for years builds stairs towards oneself. The scent of music and the sound of the body. The mornings… The nights. The people; the space; the eyes that are filled with life. A magical world hidden in the heart of Athens, nourishing the city with essential ingredients for life. Love for people; love for creation. There is much more I could say, but I will let the words hover in our collective sense; a sense of this space that shaped us and of the vision that we must shape in the future.
Thank you for everything.

I think the level of dancers in Greece is very high. There are many talented dancers who are constantly excelling in Greece and abroad. Dancers with excellent technique, stage experience and a bold choreographic vision. My name is Arapoglou Emilios and I am a graduate of the National School of Dance (2011) with the artistic director Pavlina Veremi, where I studied classical, modern and contemporary dance as well as the history of art, music and dance.
I now live abroad and work with various international artists, mainly as a dancer – choreographer and performer. My studies at the National School of Dance are one of the most important moments of my career. Strong and indelible memories from this magical location on the stairway of Omirou Street. One of the core visions of the National School of Dance is to build and produce competent, empowered, skilled and collaborative dancers. In my three years of study at the National School of Dance I have acquired the necessary knowledge, skills and resources from great teacher-mentors and have been given the opportunity to meet and collaborate with important creators from all over the world.
Undoubtedly, through creativity, hard work, discipline and dedication, the National School of Dance has achieved much in recent years and continues to produce important work and to deliver the necessary and essential skills to young artists for a successful entry into the modern market. I would like to thank Pavlina Veremi and all the teachers who believed in me and supported me throughout my studies.
Sincerely,

10/7/2016

Last day as a student at the National School of Dance. It is hard to comprehend how quickly time passes. Within only three years of studying at this school, is like you experience densely many more years. Within this microcosm, you quest for, find, and lose yourself. You get lost… The routine, the people, the relationships, the places, the DANCE. I regret nothing, I would not trade this experience, this journey, with anyone. A truly strong bond of love has been built with this place and… who knows how this will evolve…
Thank you for the three most intense and passionate years of my life so far.
Much love,

2/7/2017

Perhaps the most important decision of my life. I thank the people with whom we coexisted in these spaces, as they helped me get closer to where I want to be.
In the beautiful -both dance-related and non dance-related- moments.

Today marks the end of a quite decisive cycle. I spent three (four, now that I think about it), years in here quite intensely. This was my home. I am grateful for everything I gained. And if I could turn back time, I would not change a thing as I have learned from both the good and the bad.

Wishing you the best in your artistic quest! 

“National School of Dance”: I cannot even describe my feelings when hearing these words. The School and the director Ms Pavlina Veremi were a milestone in my life and in the lives of the other students who attended the School. Every day you had to surpass your limits, perfect your technique, be there wholeheartedly, move on even when you thought this was impossible, get out on stage and give it all, to learn how to face obstacles -whatever these might be. These demanding years of study seemed like a high mountain you had to climb, and you had to do it without looking back, but it was your redemption later in life. Mrs. Pavlina was for me much more than the director of the School. She had empathy, understood me and was always there to make me find my strength when I thought I had lost it. Nobody will ever forget how much she contributed to keeping our School alive during the fiscal crisis in Greece and how much she cared about our development as artists, inviting the most renowned choreographers to our classes. She will always be in my mind and heart, as will my teachers and fellow students. They all made me a better dancer but also a better person. I would not change these years for anything because there I learned what discipline, respect, love, dedication, self-confidence, group work and DANCE mean.

How sweet and sunny that day was…How lightly my legs hopped down the stairs in Omirou street after getting the results that I got accepted. I was officially in the National School of Dance. How beautifully confused I felt landing from the classrooms of Athens University of Economics and Business in the small “diamond”, beating alive in the center of Athens, the National School of Dance.
I only had a vague idea of what I was putting myself into, after all, how could one know? Years of pain, so much pain, days full of sweat, magical minutes sharing the dance with bright people and so much satisfaction and plenty of epic failures. How much can one grow just by being filled with images of the artists around them? Teachers, choreographers, directors, theatre directors, photographers, musicians, lighting designers, people, just wonderful people I met who changed me radically. How did we all get here? Witnessing the transformation of the dancers, the discipline, the dedication, the commitment, the engagement and the sacred exchange of the arts.
All principles well rooted in the National School of Dance brought “within the walls” of the neoclassical building began by her, oh yes, she was the source of everything. Ms. Pavlina Veremi the director, the visionary, the composer of this unique space full of possibilities, full of relationships, growth, and brilliance. I was lucky enough to meet her as the director, later to collaborate with her and today looking up to her with confidence and love as my mentor, my friend and role model. She could see it all, she could see right through you. Thank you for showing me the way, thank you for teaching me to choose results over excuses, to simply do better, to never settle, to approach life with a sense of humor and an opinion, to be respectful and to fight for what I believe in with my full soul. Thank you for teaching me when in dilemma that I should take the road less travelled and that will make all the difference.
With respect and admiration, with a full soul and a warm heart

Ever since I was a teenager, I dreamed of the moment when I would study dance. So, when I joined the National School of Dance, my dream was beginning. First, it was the magic of meeting cultured people, creators, and artists. I met with teachers and dancers who gave me the tools to continue my pursuit of movement, performance, and art. Patience, perseverance and faith in arduous work were some of the tools for my subsequent course.
The research and truth of authenticity was perhaps my most important gain from the school and its imprint on me for my future goals. Ms. Pavlina Veremi, who directed the school during my studies, created this dynamic environment by orchestrating and selecting each one individually to provide the foundation and the conditions for our dreams to come true. My years at the school are a memory deeply etched in me, with love, movement, art, effort, curiosity, struggle and the thrill of creation.

30/6/2017

Memories. Effort. Progress. Friendships. Laughter. Fatigue. Fear. Excitement. Satisfaction. Tears. Learning. Goals. Graduation and have a nice summer. Thank you. Good luck.

June 30, 2017

A process of transformations. Our entire existence concentrated on one idea. A changeable existence. I remember thinking that here I could be everything I imagined and so much more that I had ever imagined. And if I can do it here, perhaps I can do it anywhere. Will I manage to remember it all? I hold everything within me with tenderness and gratitude. My strength. Safe and full, with love and respect, with faith… In all the beautiful things to come…
I sincerely thank you for everything!

The National School of Dance 2000-2003. After 10 years of championship in rhythmic gymnastics I took exams in the National School of Dance, and I succeeded… Tentatively, they tell me at first. I will need to do extra classes with the Phytorio and depending on my progress they will decide whether to keep me or not.
I do not know why they kept me, what they saw in me. All my classmates seemed wonderful. I admired them, observed them, and wanted to be good like them. Every day from 8.30 to 5.30 I attended the professional classes and then the classes of the Phytorio. I had learned discipline from competition, and I just kept going. My progress began to show quickly, and I was feeling more and more inspired. Inside the building at 55 Omirou Street, I lived three magical, wonderful, creative, exhausting, transformative years. From a caterpillar I turned into a butterfly… My body changed, my technique grew stronger, every class was like a small performance. We had live music in all classes. Seminars with teachers and choreographers from abroad, performances… In there, along with my classmates, teachers, musicians, I was enchanted… I fell in love with dance… I discovered qualities I never imagined I had in me. Then I graduated… I worked more and more and finally I danced… Everywhere… First in Greece, then abroad… For Wim Vandekeybus, Akram Khan… All over the world! And it all started there… 55 Omirou Street.

2/7/2017

My first time at the school was eight years ago. I arrived here to take the participatory entrance exams for the Hothouse/Phytorio in order to help my friend to overcome her stress. I had never been involved in dance before. The night before my exams, she taught me pliés in first and second position. Who would have thought that now I am graduating this school with 1,000,000 pliés and a load of memories…

I wish for this school to continue to be a healthy and free place. One of the best -if not the best- educational institution in Greece.

Μrs. Pavlina,
Thank you for your trust, for the way you saw me, how you embraced me through the easy and the tough times, and you gave me a home where I can breathe through my art.
Dreams, truth, demanding work, light.
Love,

8/7/2016

And so four years have passed. Four whole years of life. I have changed. And I believe the people around me have changed as well. Those people with whom we shared every drop of our sweat, of our passion and fears and of our DREAM. Unattainable then, accessible now. My everyday life was surrounded by beloved and not-so-beloved people, by music, movement, sweat, stench, laughter (lots of it), studying (even more), tears, sulking, misunderstandings, coffee, staircases, pain upon pain, and meal upon meal! Without all of these and many more, the journey would have been different. Keep on making your people strong and smart. Keep working with the same passion and enthusiasm as when I was there. Keep proving that you can do even better every year. Keep creating. I hope this building never stops annoying the neighbours by singing sweet and off-key rhythms for a lifetime – as far as we are concerned.
Ι am proud of myself for the decision I made back then which let to meeting you; you were all great companions. Maybe we’ll meet again someday.
With a deep breath and LOVE,

My first contact with the National School of Dance took place at the age of nine, under the artistic direction of Pavlina Veremi. As a child, I stepped into the school with awe, beginning a journey of study, knowledge, and valuable experiences. During the conservatory years, all the students realized the importance of the school. We were treated as equal members, despite our young age, and we were given countless recruitments and opportunities such as that of participating in the school’s children’s group the Hellenic Junior Dance Company. These gave us the experience of completeness having the most complete preparation for entry into the professional departments.
During my studies in the professional department, I was equipped for my future career path. In addition to the demanding curriculum, the school aimed at a multifaceted and integrated approach to diverse types of dance through genres and techniques such as Ballet, Release, Graham, and others, along with seminars by the most renowned Greek and foreign dancers/choreographers, and participation in high-level performances, such as those with the repertoires by Akram Khan, Antonis Foniadakis, Jukstapoz, Jasmin Vardimon, Tono Lachky, Rootlessroot and others. These practices gave us the feeling and the confidence that upon graduation from the school we would be able to meet any professional demand -always with respect and dedication to our Art. This was also the motivation after my graduation in 2019 to apply and achieve my membership at Ballet Junior de Genève, where I danced for 2 years with the help and support of the Fluxum Foundation.
Today, endowed with the years of study at the National School of Dance, I feel ready to be able to pursue my dreams. And for all of this I feel immense gratitude for having been and will forever be a “child” of the School.

My name is Eleftheria Iliopoulou and I graduated with Honors from the National School of Dance, 2014 – 2017, under the direction of Mrs. Pavlina Veremi. Following a curriculum that included both technical and theoretical courses, I can say with certainty that I received the training that shaped the dancer I am today and paved the way for me to pursue the art of Contemporary Dance. Thanks to Mrs. Pavlina, the students of those years, we had the opportunity to collaborate with guest choreographers of global renown and recognition in choreographic works of remarkably high quality, preparing us and giving us the impetus and support to discover our vocation and deservedly claim a place in the world of Contemporary Art.
During these three years the School became our point of reference in Education as well as our home, because of the strong connection with the people and the space. In a supportive environment where the purpose of teachers and students was one, high and excellent, the endless transmission of knowledge and experience created artists.
Mrs. Pavlina ensured a space, a framework in which all the tools for development and flourishing were given. Studies which no longer constituted a study of a subject, but of the self. Confronted daily with personal limits, physically but above all spiritually, I discovered a depth, a space within me that I had been unaware of, a surplus of energy that when the will awakens, is activated. Clearly the management of the body, the mastery of total control and perfection are demands for a dancer, but they are not enough without the development of an artistic personality with integrity. And this personality was formed so intensely and consciously during these three years of study.
Through the unstoppable effort, guidance, undoing and affirmation, trust, and reward, one would say that what the body was performing: turns, falls, and leaps, the soul experienced, reaching an ideal attunement that you rarely recognize. For me, these studies were more than valuable, opening a path unknown to how to “be” how to think as an artist and I owe this to the people who lovingly opened this way, to Mrs. Pavlina and the professors who recognized my need for art, light and development.

8/7/2016

The building, the people, the music, the dances, the scents!
Thank you for EVERYTHING, I love you very much!

I was fortunate to be a member of the teaching staff of the National School of Dance under the artistic direction of Pavlina Veremi. Pavlina gave me the freedom and support to create a pedagogical curriculum that was progressive and bold. Her role was instrumental in the school, providing an environment where teachers and guest choreographers could share their knowledge and passion for dance in an unrestricted way. Students had the opportunity to meet and be inspired by personalities who have left a strong imprint on their art, as well as meet new talent who have already had a significant journey in the art of dance. The dancers who graduated under the artistic direction of Pavlina Veremis are currently amongst the best professional dancers of our country. Pavlina’s vision was for the National School of Dance to be a school open to research, education and creation.

The School for me was the biggest success and the start of a new life.
A defining part of my artistic learning. A place of knowledge and information exchange. The stimuli varied and abundant. Search for kinetic outcomes. Three rooms and a yard. That’s where it all happened. Work, fatigue, success. Unforgettable kinetic creations etched deep into the people who have passed through it. In the end, only beautiful memories. Important people of the art world, including leading teachers, dancers and choreographers from Greece and the world, were coming and going in the school, and awe permeated our bodies. The goosebumps of admiration were now habitual. The evolution of bodies and the way they stood in space was intricately beautiful. Research and creation, two unstoppable and uninterrupted processes were happening in every room of the school. There was no rest in the tangible sense; tireless dancers were working to discover and create movement. It emerged at the end of each process, from the achievement of the (high) goals that everyone personally and collectively set.
The hard work was rewarded with loud applause after each performance. I have always felt grateful for my admission to this school. This curriculum, with its countless successes, could not have taken place without the school’s director, Pavlina Veremi. The woman who was giving everything for this school. Her passion was a source of inspiration for all the students. There is an indescribable admiration for her. She became an example to many young dancers. She constantly demonstrated to us her love and passion for the art of body and movement. She knew how to choose partners who would realize her vision. The teachers, with the high level of knowledge stood by us as facilitators of our art. But she also knew how to discern the talent and hard work of an upcoming dancer and the way in which she would mold the bodies to evolve and succeed. She taught us what discipline and sensitivity is all about.
She taught us how to love and support our art. She treated us like family and gave us a strong foundation to move forward on our own. I remember, keep and save as a blessing the wish she gave me in my entrance exams: “Keep the smile you have now on your face and transfer it to your dance”.

9/7/2016

The space. The space of the National School of Dance is what I will miss along with all these creatures that I met and they met me. Thank you for this opportunity, for the knowledge, for EVERYTHING!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to attend the National School of Dance and for the trust you have shown me in my years of study. For my part, I wish I have contributed even in a tiny way in any development over the years. Thank you for the mind opening you have provided me. I hope there will be a continuation.

Vision, imagination, freedom, and cooperation. All this, along with a lot of love, are what the school has given me. Thanks for everything.

My first meeting with Pavlina Veremi was in 1999, she was the new director of the National School of Dance and I was a first-year student. The surprise I felt when she included me in her team of collaborators was followed by joy; our close collaboration lasted from 2009 to 2017. As a student, I had the opportunity to enjoy the updated curriculum she proposed and to be trained in important new and modern techniques she brought with her. As a dancer, I was shaped through the productions presented by the Hellenic Dance Company under her direction.
In my capacity as a teacher at the National School of Dance, I also had the opportunity to serve her artistic vision, which was an inexhaustible source of inspiration throughout the period of our collaboration; her unwavering passion for dance and education, which have taken the National School of Dance into a new era, and her leadership skills, which have supported many artistic and educational choices administrative wise. I would like to conclude with a big thank you to Pavlina Veremi for the trust she has shown in me over the years and even for the unique opportunity she gave me to take over the pre-professional classes of the National School of Dance as curriculum director, an experience that has been decisive for me and guided my development in terms of my personal artistic educational work.

10/7/2016

Be close to the children as you are now; your school needs it. From the moment I came to the office and we talked, you gave me strength and inspiration! THANK YOU.

With dance, with music, with whimsicality, with vigor, with people, with laughter, with fatigue, with fun, with panic, with love, with, with, with… Today is the last day. I take them all with me and I leave. Years filled and juicy like a refreshing peach.
Thank you.
I leave love and a kiss.
Until we meet again.

Αθήνα, 10/7/2016

A great life lesson, memories, laughter, tears, strong relationships, fatigue, pain, joy, scents, resilience, discipline, determination, family! A magical journey.
Thank you for everything,

Thank you very much for trusting us, for accepting us with our pros and cons and for offering us an experience that only made us better.
With the warmest greetings,

In my course at the National School of Dance, I learned to be mindful of habit because it can become a character. There were pleasant and unpleasant moments, but there were certainly no uninteresting ones. Thank you for the foundation you have built upon which we are evolving.

The National School of Dance or “Golgothas,” as I used to call it, a school that requires guts and determination and strong nerves, of course. Its curriculum is INCOMMENSURABLE. Whenever I went abroad for classes, I was realising that nowhere else could I find the tools, knowledge and a level similar to those of the school. Finally, I must admit that despite the challenges I faced during these three years, I would not trade this experience for anything. I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for the knowledge you gave me and for this entire “process” that taught me to be persistent, to work and achieve this goal of graduating the National School of Dance.

National School of Dance, 10/7/2016

Fourth year here. Graduation. A journey of self-investment.
Explanation: Reaching the end… It is impressive how much I know what I want, who I am, how many true aspects I have in me… This place and its people have given me valuable experiences that gradually helped me discover other sides of myself… The journey – this journey of discovery – does not end now. Equipped with many tools, I am ready to continue.
Dance means change. Change means evolution. And evolution means life.
I am more prepared to live! Thank you for the strength you made me feel! Thank you for everything!

A beautiful journey that greatly shaped my dance identity. During my three years of study at the State School of Dance Art, I had many creative moments and experiences with beloved fellow dancers, talented teachers, and choreographers. The greatest gift was meeting talented friends with similar concerns with whom I continue to collaborate artistically.

Thank you for providing advice and for continuing to support me! With love and appreciation.

Thank you for all the beautiful things, people, experiences, and knowledge in this oasis called the National School of Dance. It was the best decision I ever made to take an exam to enter the School. Graduating, I feel like a completely different person.

With much love and appreciation,

National School of Dance… Like a plane journey… You enter feeling excitement and fear at the same time! Takeoff…! Challenging moments arrive, you are hurt, you are afraid and sometimes you want to descend – turbulence! Your faith in the destination and your fellow passengers keep you going. And then… the TIME arrives! And you have gained a lot, as long as you have not forgotten your love and dedication! Landing! Ready for more plane journeys!
Thank you,

What I keep from my three years at the National School of Dance is, among other things, the time of the Open Studio performances: in the early days of June, the whole school was preparing the middle hall. The floor was changing, the walls smelled fresh paint, black chairs were being lined up at the main auditorium, the console for the lights was taking its place next to the large window, the shutters were being closed.
On the days of the performances all three years of the school had a joint warm-up, the upper hall became everyone’s dressing room, and the sudden characteristic silence meant that a notice had been given for the public to enter the building. I remember the smells, the silences, the garden flowers, the stairs at Omirou, the statue of Varotsos, the applause, the “shush”, the black out, the cool marble staircase, the smooth wood of the stage, the tears, the toil, the hugs, the wounded feet, the pain, the kneecaps, the band-aids and cotton balls, the sweat, the “go”, the kisses, the “toi-toi”, the consistency, the care and concern of the team, the green exit over the door, the mopping up of sweat in the dark and the endless laughter. It seems impossible to avoid the sentimentality but that is the only way these days are etched in me.
Mrs. Pavlina, thank you!

“You can achieve anything with 99% hard work and 1% luck and inspiration”, the words that marked the then eighteen-year-old student of the National School of Dance, Alexandros, from the director of the School, Pavlina Veremis.

… To you who are reading…
I wish you to have people by your side who bring a true smile to your face when they hear of your happiness. If this concerns knowledge, I wish that on your journey, the teachers and the school that will embrace you will be a support and will radiate light with each achievement of yours… not to forget you, as you do not forget them.

With K.S.O.T. as a springboard, then postgraduate studies, then doctorate… now happy on and off stage, in and out of books…

Paulina Veremi, with the way you managed the school, with the teachers I met, with the collaboration-reconnection we had again after a decade and for the relationship and communication we have until today, I feel only love and gratitude.

D.T… and Dr!

National School of Dance October 2013. It feels like yesterday when I climbed the steps of Omirou, trembling with anxiety to see the results of the entrance exams. I couldn’t imagine that for three consecutive years I would climb and descend these steps countless times and that the KSOT would become my home. I had been chosen, and thus began this magical journey. Mixed emotions, endless joy, excitement, but also anxiety, fear… Will I make it? The three classrooms, the courtyard, the changing rooms, the stairs—there I spent my entire day from morning till night. Endless hours, much fatigue, hard work, effort, joy, sorrow, disappointment, doubt, daily overcoming, sweat, success, failure, a deluge of information, progress, laughter, tears, smiles, music, hugs, physical and mental maturation, stimuli, soul, accidents, knee pads, blistered fingers, creation, expression, applause, emotion, passion, bonds, repetition, admiration, maturation, and many other scattered words come to mind when I reminisce about those years. They were three years so vivid and so full. I would give anything to experience them all over again. I am an example that undoubtedly emerged different after those three years, both as a dancer and as a person. My evolution day by day, month by month, year by year was immense, and this is because the framework of studies pushes you towards continuous effort and surpassing yourself. This, combined with my character, which worked persistently for three years, brought me to graduation three years later as a different Elena. I transformed.

I have so much to say about this school and my attendance there, but I will close by saying that I was fortunate to attend while Mrs. Paulina Veremi was still the director. This woman who was fully devoted to the KSOT and never stopped envisioning the best for the school. Beyond the curriculum that provided us with all the tools a dancer needs, both in terms of technique and creation, I want to particularly emphasize the many performances she gave us the opportunity to participate in. Both the blackbox performances, oh those unforgettable blackbox performances, and the performances with the Hellenic Dance Company during our attendance at the school and afterwards as alumni, bringing choreographers from abroad and giving us the opportunity to experience this beautiful feeling of performance that cannot be compared to anything else but cannot be described in words either.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Veremi, as well as the other teachers who stood by us all these years. I feel very fortunate to also be a ‘ΚΣΟΤικό’.

In this school, I grew up. I was here from the Hothouse/Phytorio and whilst I was turning from a child to a man the school was by my side. I do not know what else to say. It is the most important and special part of my life. May it continue to help children forever.

2/7/2017

There are in our lives some encounters, some moments, some people who change our path or show us, in an almost metaphysical way, the path we are called to follow for our fulfillment. For me, my studies at the National School of Dance (2009-2012), under the direction of Mrs. Pavlina Veremis, were decisive for my development and completion.
I remember one day, in the first week of the entrance exams, while I had woken up with terrible anxiety, looking for my ballet shoes, which I thought I had lost and felt that everything would go wrong. As I was climbing the stairs to the main hall, I stopped, looked around and felt a strange feeling, a certainty that there, in this place, which suddenly seemed so familiar, I belonged. Everything that had gone before had brought me there, and everything had conspired to discover what I had never seriously contemplated until then. My desire to become a dancer was not a frivolous game of my youth, or a desperate resolution of a rather lost young boy up to that time, but, but as much as it may sound excessive, the fulfillment of my destiny. I was not contradicted by my premonition. I could not have been luckier and happier to have trusted my instincts.
The years of my studies at the National School of Dance have been some of the happiest. All the difficulties, the effort, the unstoppable, painstaking and persistent work, rewarded me with more than enough. This year, 2022, marks ten years since my graduation and looking back, I feel that all my collaborations, my creative passion, my professional discipline and training are due to those years. To the people who believed in me, pushed me and did not give up on me. They demanded the best from me and taught me to demand the same from myself.
Mrs. Veremi has been a mother figure for me. Her love for the art of dance, for the students of the school, her experience and her belief that nothing can be won except with hard work and dedication are the principles that I follow and strive to remind myself of every day, even today. Our curriculum was of a very high standard, and this is evidenced by the successes achieved by so many graduates of my generation. Wherever I have worked, both in Greece and abroad, I have always felt ready and prepared to face any difficulties and to respond on a technical and artistic level in the best possible way.
The courses prepared me to be able to cope in very different environments. The performances at the Black Box, which were so important to us because we could share something of ourselves, test ourselves by performing in front of an audience, finally gave me the necessary confidence in my strengths and a taste of the professional world. I often look back on my years of attending the National School of Dance. I feel grateful and lucky that I was able to graduate, because it was a non-stop struggle until the end.
If I let nostalgia take over, then I dream of climbing the stairs of Omirou street, opening the door of the school, going to the changing rooms, preparing and entering the dance room. My favorite moment. My favorite place. The dance rooms. Everywhere. So, thank you to Ms. Pavlina Veremi, and all my teachers, who trusted me and helped me become a dancer and who, without knowing it at the time, gave direction and purpose to my life.

Raised are the walls and the Ego
stands as a guard…
Needs that turn into desires
and desires that are forced…
The Ego is puzzled.
Do the walls protect me
or do I protect them?
How will I distinguish the needs
from the desires?
Should I fear or believe?
Three years of experiences that will remain unforgettable! Thank you for everything! With gratitude, I move forward!

Now someone throws you into the deep and you realize that you have far more life jackets than you believed. These three years counted as five, a day had more hours than normal, every moment you absorbed something new. It is an investment (investment = material or object that has been added internally or externally to the surface of another object, for aesthetic, reinforcement, or protection reasons). An investment in the technique of the body, in self-formation, in creativity, in the need for evolution, in organization, in the potential of the body, in the limits of thought.
I am grateful for this investment and I move forward protected, carving my own path. I leave love and I embrace everything with a moved heart.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for all that you have given me in the most important years of my life! I am very lucky to have studied next to such a great woman! 
Besides dancing, you taught me what justice means and above all how to love myself. The best is yet to come, thanks to you.

To Mrs. Pavlina
How can I put together the few words I want to say about my beloved Pavlina? I will start with the basic one: you are the reason why I completed my studies at the National School of Dance, because in a very difficult period I was facing you spoke to me with sincerity, selflessness and helped me to make the right decision and continue my studies. A woman with tenacity, artistic vision who was always focused on quality education for students.
You have been a great support, and an inspiration to me, and I will never forget it.
I love you very much, no matter what.
The “Razor Blade.”