Kyriakos Moisidis

Greek Dance

Kyriakos Moisidis is a prolific researcher, instructor, and performer of Greek traditional dance. Born in the village of Prohoma, near Thessaloniki in Greece, his family origins trace back to Pontic Greeks from the region of Kars (present-day northeastern Turkey). He learned to dance at an early age and has taught dance since 1985, including for two groups in Prohoma before leaving to pursue a degree and career in business.

Leaving his marketing position in 1997 to dedicate himself fully to Greek dance, in 2003 Kyriakos completed a degree in Physical Education and Athletics from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki with a major in traditional dance. Throughout this period Kyriakos has conducted extensive, ongoing research on traditional Greek dance, music, and customs. While well versed in the dances of all regions of Greece, he is in high demand for his expertise on dance traditions from Pontos, Kappadokia, Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Thrace in northern Greece.

He compiled the entries about Pontian dance in the Encyclopedia of Pontian Greeks (editor: Malliaris Pedia), has contributed works on dance for various congresses, academic and popular journals and newspapers, and wrote for his own page in the magazine Amastris, which is dedicated to Pontic culture and history.

Kyriakos has participated in hundreds of dance performances in Greece and abroad. Moreover, he is invited to give numerous seminars on Greek dance every year both in Greece and worldwide; he has taught in Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, Australia, the United States, and other countries. Since 2000, Kyriakos has also organized an annual 10-day-long summer dance conference in Greece, and since 2009 a ten-day tour through villages in Northern Greece—both seminars well attended by dancers from around the world. He also has taught for more than 15 dance groups in the wider area of Central Macedonia.

Currently he teaches in Thessaloniki for the dance association Kentro Meletis Paradosiakon Horon – Kyklos, which he co-founded in 2005. He also teaches the course on Greek traditional dances (Ελληνικοί παραδοσιακοί χοροί) as a professor at the Music Science and Art Department of the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki.

YouTube channel

YouTube video samples:

• Tik – dance demonstration
• Village of Sofiko – dance performance
• Koniali – dance demonstration
• 18th Seminar of Greek Dance – DVD preview