Vassia Vassiliou born in Cyprus, raised in the world. She calls herself dreamer, surrealist, clown. She found herself on a professional stage at the age of 18, in Euripides ancient Greek tragedy chorus and she has been onstage since then . Right after her first appearance, she left her small island behind in order to explore the world, life and performing arts. First stop was Toronto, Canada, where she attended George Brown College, Toronto Dance Theatre and Cathleen Duffy’s dance studio. Her journey went on to Europe, England, Holland to end up in Athens, where she fell for instantly. The National Theatre of Greece was her welcoming job in Moris Maiterling’s play, The Blue Bird.
What drives her is the challenge, the unknown, the unsaid. Everything around her is research and experiment material. The most important tool of all is the body itself, hence her endless practice of dance, her studies of the Greek Sign Language, her love for meditation, yoga and all kind of physical exercise.
Her directing work is holistic. While directing she designs the set, the lights, the costumes, the movements. It is all about creating a unique universe. Now, her performing approach has to do with the attempt of the magic of total transformation so it all comes down to the dedication of the method, and the truth of the present moment. Her last attempt was the role of Estragon in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the inaugural production of The Theatre of the No, directed by Nikos Dionysios.
She loves Kafka’s universe, Beckett’s sense of nothingness, Poe’s smooth darkness, Dostoyevsky’s intelligence, Maiterling’s fantasy, Ionesco’s paradox boldness, Shakespeare’s intensity. But most of all she is in awe by the Ancient Greek poets Aeschylus, Sophokles, Euripides, Aristophanes for spreading the fundamentals of theatre to all mankind.
” The art of theatre is my way of fitting into the world ”, she claims.
Official website : https://vassiliouvassia.gr/