Natya Yoga
Athina Georgiou BIO
photo by Adelina Burnescu
Athina (Nana) Georgiou studied sociology and philosophy at the University of Vienna, where she graduated with a Master’s degree in Philosophy. She studied classical South Indian dance, Bharatanatyam, with Radja Anjali at Natya-Madir in Vienna, and with K. Lakshman at Bharata Choodamani Academy of Fine Arts in Chennai. She, also, studied contemporary dance and graduated from the University of Nicosia with a Bachelor’s degree in Dance. She has been trained amongst other yoga schools in the Sivananda Vedanta Ashram in Kerala, India, where she completed her Yoga teacher’s training course in 1999. She is also a Reiki master of the Usui Shiki Ryoho School.
Athina was a yoga instructor for ten years at the Anassa Hotel in Pafos. Amongst other places, she taught yoga at Life Centre, Zening Resorts, Pilates Philosophy, Serenity House and Green Bliss Yoga.
In the past, she worked as a part-time lecturer at the University of Nicosia, where she taught yoga and classical Indian dance at the Music and Dance Department.
In 2004, Athina founded the dance group INVERTED and presented at Pop Up Festival Nicosia her choreographic work of contemporary dance, DIRT (20’). In spring 2015, she participated in the residency program of Dance House Lefkosia with her work The Soul’s Dilemma (20’). She participated in the No-Body Festival 2015 in Nicosia with her work THE BOX (30’). THE BOX was also presented in November 2016 at WhereHaus 612. Her choreography GLIMPSES (35’) was presented at Dance House Lefkosia in December 2016 and at Sites Embodied Festival in Paphos in April 2017. Amongst other art workshops, Nana has participated in Eco Art Incubator, a workshop organized by Dance Gate Lefkosia Cyprus in collaboration with Creative Europe Desk Cyprus, out of which she created Betrayed Aphrodite, a short dance video in 2017. Inspired by the video, she created her next choreography betraying you, betraying me (20’) that was presented in July 2018 at Pame Kaimakli festival in Nicosia and in August 2018 at Echo Arts Festival – Vigil for Earth in Nesodden, Norway. In November 2018, Athina and performer/visual artist Anthi Pafiou created the piece Breaking Point (25’) that was presented at Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival in Nicosia. BETRAYAL (25'), Athina's last choreographic work was presented at RVK Fringe Festival, in Reykjavik - Iceland, July 2019. In March 2020, she presented a new version of that work, Betrayal Revisited (25’), at Dance House Nicosia. Her last choreographic work, The Sari (35'), premiered in October 2021at Dance House Nicosia.
Athina is currently teaching yoga and dance classes at Πνοή Yoga center, which she founded in 2020, in Nicosia.