Christina Klissiouni is a movement educator, movement researcher, performer, choreographer, and Body Psychotherapist, Shiatsu practitioner with over 40 years of experience both in Greece and internationally.

Her goal is to cultivate mindfulness and self-awareness as pathways to personal growth.

She utilizes improvisation techniques, particularly Contact Improvisation and Somatics, which she introduced to Greece in 1990-91 after returning from her dance studies in New York. As part of the second generation of Contact Improvisation teachers, she has maintained a steady presence in the international community.

Since 1986, Christina has been training both amateurs and professionals. Over the years, she has developed her own teaching methodology for dancers and performers, drawing on the deep knowledge she gained by studying with the founders of these practices.  Her experience is rooted not only in her work as a teacher but also in her interactions with dancers from diverse communities, approaches, and skill levels. Throughout her long career, she has led numerous intensive workshops at important venues and at major Contact Improvisation festivals across Europe and Asia, and has been acknowledged as a prominent CI educator by the international community.

She has been working as a Shiatsu therapist since 1994, a practice that she creatively applies to therapy and movement groups. Recently, Christina completed advanced training in Trauma Therapy using Laurence Heller’s NARM approach (certified in April 2024). She has also trained in the first three levels of Cranio-Sacral Therapy at the Upledger Institute (2021–2023), underscoring her commitment to lifelong learning.

Suprapto Suryodarmo (Indonesia) was, in particular, a very important mentor, collaborator, and spiritual teacher for Christina since 1997. Her study of Contemplative Movement with Suprapto had a profound influence, opening new paths that allowed her to integrate improvisation, interpretation, and creative expression with the therapeutic aspects of dance.

In 2009, she founded Present Body Studio, a unique artistic space in the center of Athens, which promotes contemporary dance and therapy practices in a holistic approach. The aim is to develop physical and emotional intelligence based on self-awareness and self-expression.

TEACHING DANCE/PRACTICES OF CONSCIOUS MOVEMENT/SOMATICS/IMPROVISATION

She teaches: Conscious Movement and Improvisation, Contemporary Dance-Release techniques, Contact Improvisation, Self-awareness through movement and the body, from 1991-present.

Introduces the above techniques for the first time in the dance scene in Greece and broadens the art of dance as it is addressed not only to dancers/actors but also to amateurs.

She teaches at the State School of Dance (1991-3) the improvisation and Contact Improvisation course to the third year students.

She teaches at the Athenaeum Conservatory (1993-6) release techniques for music teachers and students, based on the principles of the Alexander technique.

She trains the Lefteris Vogiatzis Theater Group at Nea Skini. She starts to collaborate with director Lefteris Vogiatzis since 1992 when he formed the actors’ lab to develop Sophocle’s classical tragedy Antigone. Their collaboration continued until 1997 with the play “The night of the Butterfly”.

From 1991-2016 she systematically teaches dance/movement classes and seminars on a daily basis to dancers, actors, professional and amateurs interested in dance and alternative ways of reeducating movement. She has collaborated with dance studios such as those of Haris Antachopoulou, Griffon, Mary Vandorou, Mary Tsouti (Analia), Duncan Center, Victoria Noumta Dance Center, Aliki Kontziou-Goussa Dance Studio and many other venues. She has also been teaching CI to children and adolescents involved in gymnastics, for 3 years.

At the same time, Christina organizes seminars with renowned CI teachers from abroad such as Andrew Harwood, Kirstie Simson, Nita Little, Daniel Lepkoff, Ezra Le Bank, Nien Mari Chatz, Ka Rustler, Mary Prestidge, Angela Doni, Shahar Dor, Ulli Witteman, Bastien Auber, Charlie Morrissey, Christina Svane, Ray Chang, Suprapto Suryodarmo and others, bringing the world of the Greek dance and CI community into contact with its remarkable colleagues and teachers from abroad.

In 2009 she opens her own space, Present Body Center of Dance, Movement and Body Psychotherapy, in the center of Athens.

From 1993 to the present, she organizes and teaches 8 weekend seminars annually. She has taught at least 10 CI seminars at Efi Kaloutsi’s studio in Chania from 1994-95, in Chania at Megalo O, where she taught 3 seminars in 2014-5, at Oxo Nou where she taught an intensive 5-day seminar in 2015, at Tatiana Loverdou’s studio in Patras (1993-4) once a month, at the Acropoditi Center in Syros (4 seminars), in Thessaloniki in 2010 and 2016, in Kalamata (1992), in Tinos in Tripotamo, as mentioned below. She has also taught a seminar in the third year of the Kimoulis Theater School and a CI seminar in Anastasia Lyra’s dance group.

Training and Experience in Shiatsu Practice

Christina Klissiouni trained in Shiatsu at the European Shiatsu School when the school first established a three-year training branch in Athens, with its headquarters in London (1994-97). Since completing her training, she has been offering individual sessions. She continues her professional development by attending specialized continuing education seminars with Clifford Andrews & Pauline Sasaki to expand her therapeutic capabilities, while also participating in international Shiatsu conferences. Additionally, she has attained the first and second degrees in Reiki. Since June 2021, she has been training in Craniosacral Therapy, having completed the first three levels as taught by the Upledger Institute. The above practices, along with her experience as a body psychotherapist, educator, and movement researcher based on Somatics (Alexander Technique and Body Mind Centering), support and expand her approach to Shiatsu.

Exploring touch and the art of listening for more than 35 years, she applies Shiatsu techniques in her research and teaching practices in Contact Improvisation education.