Becoming a Dancer in a Heartbeat

I moved back to Greece in 1973 with my parents and got very politically involved in opposition to the Military dictatorship form of government in Greece at the time.
I decided to stay in Greece and go to the army.

I was surrounded by leftist artistic individuals (pro soviet) One day I heard that a Russian dance company was coming to perform at the Akropolis amphitheatre called Stanlislavsky ballet company.

Zorba - Choreographed by Maurice Bejart

This is the real thing danced by a real person feeling real feelings:

I was very curious to experience Russian culture. It was sold out. Being wild by nature, I climbed a wall on the side of the theatre, evaded the security guards and managed to find an empty seat centre stage, 10 rows from the front. It was needless to say one magical performance. It seemed the dancers were floating 2 feet off the ground. By the end we were all 7,000 of us in attendance that night dumbfounded. Nobody clapped for what seemed to be an eternity. When we started clapping we all stood up and gave them at least 40 standing ovations. I did not see a single individual leave the theater.
At the end they pleaded with us to let them go so they can get some sleep.

The next day I went to the beach with my Leftist friends... my attention was on the horizon... I just kept looking out into the sea... I could feel my world had changed.

That same night we gathered at an artists house.. the full moon was hovering low over the Athenian urban landscape as the moonlight entered the dimly lit penthouse and projected on to the wall like a rectangular film screen.

My friends being very pro soviet were going on and on about Russian art and culture. They asked me about my experience... I did not know what to say... they kept asking me... I could not talk... the pressure built up and built up inside me like a volcano...

Then it all came out.. an eruption from a place very deep... I jumped up and yelled out in anger: "who the hell are the Russians? When the Russians were living in caves like bears the Greeks were measuring the distance between the moon and the earth... you want to see real dance? I will show you a Greek dance!"

I leapt up, turned the remaining light off and began to dance with my shadow against the wall... my consciousness was was in/out of my body... I could see myself dancing... making voices... sounds... and I was in my body at the same time, I was viewing it all from the ceiling looking down at myself... I danced like a man possessed... replicating moves that I saw... after about 20 minutes I let out a scream and collapsed with a loud thud on the wooden floor...

They were all silent and dumbfounded the same way that I was the previous night at the ballet. Then they started praising the Russian culture again... I stopped them and said: "Screw the Russians screw communism, and screw you" and with that I walked out.

I went AWOL from the army... did not report and managed to get out on a student Visa... mind you before this time I had never ever danced in my life... not in school dances or anywhere else.

On my return to Canada, I studied ballet for 6 months and auditioned for the National Ballet school in Toronto and being 18yrs old at the time, I was rejected and quit dance and went back to Greece. I was able to pay and get my discharge papers via a loophole created by the military during the dictatorship to make money from Greek immigrants. They state that I am an "Untrained Marine".

After a year I decided to try again. I could not get dancing out of my system. I went back to Toronto and trained again for 6 months and then to New York in the summer of 1977 where I studied for 1 month and auditioned for Maurice Bejart, artistic director of Dance of the 21st Century company and founder of the school called "Mudra" in Bruselles. There were 76 dancers auditioning, they took 4 on a full scholarship I was one of them.

That same summer, I went to back Greece to prepare for the move to Belgium. Bejart's company, Dance of the 21st Century was performing at the same amphitheatre that I witnessed my first dance performance. I went down to the theatre, introduced myself and told the manager that I was accepted to study at Mudra. He invited me to take class with Bejart himself on the very same stage that I witnessed the magic that made me a Dancer in a Heartbeat just two years earlier.

Ecstasy flowed through my veins in waves as I danced on that very same stage with Bejart himself conducting the class to boot!

It is in my blood to attempt the impossible... it may seem reckless but it is who I am... it has been proven to work for me time and time again...