I had the honour to become acquainted with Mariam Prokou in the 35th world dance ‎conference of ‎the International Dance Council (CID), which took place in Athens, in July ‎‎2013. She taught us oriental ‎dancing in the experiential workshops, in which took part ‎renowned dancers from all over the world. ‎Mariam, a person of high ethos, natural nobility ‎and sweetness of character, made an immediate ‎impression. The primeval fertility dance ‎which she taught, technically impeccable, stirred everyone ‎with its mystagogical, revolving ‎movements of hands and body, a reference to the revolving motions of ‎the universe. The ‎dance of the belly, where the great miracle of life is given birth and the human being ‎is ‎incarnated, becomes, through dancing, a sacred centre of diffusion of harmony and ‎equilibrium in ‎the entire body and soul of the dancer. Mariam’s deep culture, her ‎psychotherapeutic knowledge, and ‎her respect for the human being turn dancing lessons ‎into therapy. The emergence of femininity from ‎the wavelike motions of the body liberates ‎the power of love and Eros, which is diffused in the ‎universe. Learning from Mariam ‎oriental dancing is not mere entertainment; one enters into a world of ‎light, where harmony ‎and unity dominate. Carry on my dear friend.‎

I met Mariam after an invitation for a seminar entitled “Femininity Harmonization”, without ‎knowing ‎what this could mean for a provincial region. The venue where the seminar was ‎held was the Folklore ‎Dancing Group ‘Karagouna’ in the town of Karditsa. It was an ‎invitation to an acquaintance with oriental ‎dancing. In an environment of ‘between then and ‎now’, surrounded by traditional costumes some of ‎which have not been worn for over a ‎century, Mariam brought a fresh breath! More seminars followed ‎and through them we ‎learned symbolisms which reveal memories of the female body, which remain ‎asleep and ‎wait for the time of awakening! We discovered how to communicate with the hidden ‎world ‎of inner woman, we learned to liberate the defenceless woman and all the natural ‎bodily ‎motions, long forgotten in the passage of time. Mariam helped us to communicate ‎through ‎oriental dancing, full of respect for ourselves and the others. The female body ‎remembers! ‎The women of Karditsa always stayed close to the land, almost ploughing with their ‎bare ‎hands, but forgot what it means to be a woman! Mariam, we thank you for everything.‎

I remember, some years ago, how, when I arrived to EN POI, a dancing school in the ‎suburb of ‎Maroussi for my physical exercise, it was announced to us that oriental dancing ‎classes were to begin, ‎with Ms Mariam Prokou as teacher. I expressed my interest with ‎pleasure. My acquaintance with our ‎new teacher was particularly pleasant, because her ‎appearance betrayed a kindly person. Her gifts as a ‎teacher became clear in the course of ‎the teaching classes. Through them, a new and totally different ‎world opened for me, ‎because of the culture that lay behind the dance. Every movement had its own ‎significance ‎and a distinct place in the role of women as mothers! I will never forget the ‎‎“serpent” ‎exercise, especially difficult, for me at any rate. Watching it performed by Ms Mariam ‎it ‎seemed the simplest thing in the world! Now, a few words regarding Ms Mariam as ‎teacher. What ‎can one say: Especially gifted, enormously patient, with exceptional ‎communication powers. As to her ‎dancing: sheer magic! Unfortunately, my personal ‎delightful engagement ended soon, causing me ‎great sorrow, but the experience is ‎embedded in my memory as something most interesting and ‎pleasant. I wish to all ‎Mariam’s disciples, female and, why not, male, every success, and to her ‎personally both ‎individual and professional achievements.‎.

Through my precious and long professional life-course as a holistic physiotherapist I came ‎to believe ‎that our body is simultaneously Form and Energy. The first contact of a human ‎being is with his/her ‎body and its functions. Cold, heat, music, rhythm and dance are stimuli ‎which provide the sense of ‎well-being. I love my body when it dances. My mind is allayed ‎of thoughts and intellectual resistances, ‎my body speaks and takes a new form, it is ‎liberated, its energy changes, acquires a new shape, finds ‎new expressions of joy, ‎sensitivity, love, gratitude to life. Five years ago, I encountered, and made ‎contact with, ‎oriental dancing and Mariam. Her approach to oriental dance impressed me and ‎stimulated ‎my interest. She spoke of the “harmonization of femininity through oriental dancing”. ‎Soon ‎after, I became her disciple. I experienced the energy and strength at the epicentre of my ‎body, ‎in the navel, in the Hara area of my belly, source, in Japanese tradition, of sexual ‎energy and of my ‎femininity. Performing this dance, under the persistent guidance of ‎Mariam, I experienced the ‎incredible power concealed in the swaying of the hips, in ‎combination with the movement of the spinal ‎column and the sacrum bone. A warm liquid ‎runs through my spine up to the neck, and hence emerge ‎a clarity of mind, feelings of love, ‎joy, harmony, a novel communication leading me to a space of ‎acceptance and freedom. ‎It is time for women to be cured through the process of harmonization of ‎femininity, to be ‎reconciled with their sex, to contemplate their beauty, to accept their power, to feel ‎the ‎embrace of love, to become tender mothers. Mariam, your affection for oriental dancing ‎has ‎showed us a new path of joy and freedom. Thank you so much!‎

Mariam Prokou is an excellent dancer and teacher. Her dancing is elevating and ‎contagious. When you ‎see her dance, it is as if she embraces the whole Earth and makes ‎you keen to dance with her. She ‎generously shares with you the knowledge of the body; ‎she has developed the semantics of dancing ‎motions and is sensitive to your need for help, ‎when you wish to learn. She is prepared to listen and ‎give you the necessary assistance to ‎move forward. She is a sweet person, always thirsty for personal ‎and professional ‎improvement. Her classes are the most integrated example of their kind in our ‎country, to ‎initiate us in the art and significance of belly-dancing. Thank you, Mariam, for everything ‎I ‎lived and shared with you. I wish you to be always well to your old age, to dance and ‎transmit to us ‎the beauty of your art. I love you deeply.‎

To dance with Mariam is to travel in a web of relations, with your body, your soul, the ‎others, the team. ‎Always selecting an organized and disciplined approach, Mariam guides ‎each individual to turn into a ‎‎”body” that dances, makes contacts, enchants, struggles, ‎relishes. Mariam demands precision and ‎introduces new techniques in a way that gives you ‎room and time for discovery. She has the wisdom ‎and ability to envelop and guide you, ‎while allowing you to remain the protagonist of your own history; ‎a history you realize that ‎you are not fully aware of; this is the magic of dance; the dance with Mariam.‎

With Mariam I discovered the spirituality of dance, its ritual and semantic function. I was ‎initiated to a ‎mode of expression, which starts where words cease to exist. I followed an ‎innate path toward the ‎various ingredients of femininity, which are all segments of myself, ‎manifested or not. I continue on ‎this road in her company, with love and faith in her and in ‎what she stands for‎

Learning with Mariam is at the same time an historical journey and an energy therapy. She ‎teaches you ‎that every movement in belly-dancing has a specific symbolism. She ‎manages to make you realize, and ‎be reconciled with, your female nature. Mariam teaches ‎technique, joy and balance. Thank you, ‎Mariam!‎

Mariam Prokou is creative, inexhaustible, full of passion for dancing. This is what I ‎experienced from ‎my first lesson till today, eleven years later. She is always – and I really ‎mean that – drawing inspiration ‎from the team in her class and shows us something new, a ‎quality which makes me to admire her and ‎to steadily increase my love for dancing. There ‎is a magic in it which drives me in my mind-travels and in ‎my enjoyment of every lesson.‎

Mariam Prokou is an artist and an instructor of dance, but her work has a spiritual dimension. She is a student of Social Anthropology and studies the myths and rituals that underlie the religious elements of music and dance. Her work is an exploration of the spirit as well as an expression of aesthetic prowess. She is an instructor with depth, experience, and understanding.

What an aristocratic lady! Mariam’s personality and her dance are examples of nostalgic ‎and aristocratic ‎nobleness. Her authentic noble demeanour is matched by her brimming, ‎prolific and equally refined ‎femininity. I personally adore her capacity to share generously ‎her passion for dancing, her knowledge, ‎but also her principles. Her choices, always of high ‎quality and accuracy, distinguish her as a unique ‎teacher of dance and a dancer of great ‎prestige and interpretation prowess in the field of oriental ‎dance in the Greek stage.‎

mariam is a dancer whom I had the joy of meeting and working alongside artistically. I was deeply touched by the delicacy and subtlety of his dance. It emanates from his dance a refinement I have rarely met. she is an artist who knows how to work with seriousness and love. thank you for all these beautiful moments of dance

It was a unique magical journey to the bottom of my soul; a trip to its endless depths and ‎inaccessible hights. Traversing both worlds, I met goddesses and female demons, immortal ‎fragments of the eternal female soul. Through a choreography, a profound praxis of female ‎perfection and harmony was enacted, which I had not imagined I would dare to attempt, without ‎Mariam’s encouragement and her enlightened, full of love and knowledge, guidance and ‎inspiration. Mariam, with her pink-coloured headscarf as her sole weapon, guided me through my ‎body, to paths that only she has a way of knowing. Be blessed, Mariam. Thank you!‎

I came to know Mariam several years ago and she initiated me to the beautiful world of oriental ‎dancing. Her teaching makes you travel and transforms you. She has her own way of ‎transmitting her knowledge, her grace, and ethereal movement. Each one of her classes is ‎unique. It is a journey of body and mind. In each lesson you improve the plasticity of your body, ‎its grace, harmony and resilience. Apart from being an accomplished teacher, Mariam is above ‎all a human being, with ethos, love for her disciples and for little animals. This love is returned to ‎her. We love you, Mariam.‎‎‎

Mariam gave me dancing lessons back in 2005! An astonishing teacher endowed with patience ‎and deep knowledge of the subject she teaches, full of creativity and enthusiasm; she dances ‎with unparalleled sensitivity, grace and elegance, while femininity and female nature are praised ‎in the female classes she has organized. She accompanies every woman attending her classes ‎in an inner journey of self-discovery and contact with the female power inside her. The outcome ‎is the creation of a superb fraternity of women joined in a praise of the female spirit! There is only ‎one quality that surpasses the magic of Mariam’s art and that is the light of her soul; what ‎distinguishes her is her rare social sensitivity, her active concern for human beings, animas and ‎the environment, and her support for all weak social groups. It has been an honour for me to ‎know her as an artist and as a human being‎.

Dance, in spite of my trials and experiments, was for me a tricky affair, because of the ‎necessary subordination to form and to team coordination and the prerequisite dexterity of ‎mimicry. Its magic, however, was a great bait. This magic found its expression, from the first ‎moment, in Mariam’s person and movement. Ethereal, female, and flowing, she provoked you to ‎tune to the rhythm of your nature, and hold it in your arms; then to mould and shape yourself in ‎order to gain substance and impress it in space. This was a hitherto unknown experience of ‎mixed joy and anger; joy because of the beauty which forced you to unravel your inadequacies ‎and your potential, the false and the harmonic; anger, because every change is painful, specially ‎when it cannot be achieved solely through speech, but requires a primeval and deep movement. ‎What is more, communication within our group uncovered and healed all female wounds. ‎Mariam Prokou does not merely teach dance; she is a healer who points us the way to discover, ‎build ties and heal the fragments of our female substance. With love and high esteem,‎

Mariam, I feel very fortunate for having met you, but also unfortunate for being unable to be with ‎you, because of physical distance. As to your work, each time I attended your class I was filled ‎with joy and positive energy; even your classes which are uploaded in the Web make me feel ‎that I participate in the class group. Congratulations for your work and for what you lovingly ‎transmit!‎‎

What an astonishing teacher and a superb person Mariam is! She takes your hand tenderly and ‎steers you to known and unknown places with motherly care, experience and the knowledge of ‎an exceptional instructor. Really unique, in everything she does! I thank her with all my heart for ‎everything we shared.‎‎‎

My experience with Mariam was more than just belly dancing classes. Apart from being a creative ‎feminine dance, she channels an energetic, spiritual element through her teachings. Her focus is on ‎engaging a woman power centre through conscious mindful womb centre activations, movement and ‎flow. My personal experience was that I was able to activate kundalini energy and transcend into ‎another state. Mariam was able to hold a safe space for me to experience this. I am forever grateful to ‎her for the important feminine work that she is doing. A must for anyone wanting to connect with her ‎femininity.‎

I was lucky and blessed to know Mariam Prokou. The first thing that impressed me when I met ‎her was her hands; unbelievable hands that danced! Then came her glance, which portrayed the ‎meaning of her dance. What is unique is not just her talent, her dancing skills, and her knowledge ‎of dance, but, above all, the gift of transmitting these qualities! With Mariam, you do not simply ‎learn to dance, but also to love your body, youthful or mature, lean or plump, and to sway it with ‎audacity and, mainly, with ethos! If I could use one work to describe Mariam, this would be ‎Quality.

Mariam overflows with femininity in her every movement and she knows how to transmit this ‎openhandedly to her apprenticing dancers; she teaches them how to enable the qualities of their ‎female nature to resurface, qualities which have shrunk in the daily routine of the western way of ‎life. Her tuition is not the mere learning of oriental dance movements; as accurately described in ‎the title of her classes, it is a broader learning of feminine harmonization; a lesson for life much ‎needed by all women, because we do not have to discard our female element, in order to reach ‎emancipation. On the contrary, it is essential that we activate it, to make it gush out of our body, ‎because “woman” signifies “serene power”.‎

Mariam Prokou is a colleague whom I value more than any other; I value her as an oriental ‎dance teacher, because her teaching comes out of her heart, with love and respect for her ‎female disciples and for dancing. She is close to them, and they jointly create a happy company ‎and lay the foundations for new friendships. Mariam, a restless artistic spirit, is always in search ‎of new ways of teaching and knowledge. She organizes fine performances and takes care to ‎make her disciples feel comfortable on stage, while performing a choreography which brings out ‎their skills. Having engaged for years in a variety of dances, her approach to oriental dances is ‎creative, escapes from stereotypes and is based on her personal research and on individual ‎development through movement.‎‎

‎My acquaintance with Mariam Prokou and my apprenticeship in her workshop have been for me ‎a most touching experience of contact with my female substance.‎

I used to think of oriental dancing as something alien and distant. Until I met Mariam, a lace-‎embroidered and fine-woven, like cobweb, person, who showed me that everything is inside us, ‎provided we want to discover it.‎‎

While sensing my bond with the mother-womb, I heard a voice … “You are daughter, mother, ‎grand-mother”, the rope that binds you with all your roles … But are you a lover? Yes, you are! ‎The role of lover ties together all the others, it is the one that seeks to explain the rest … Virgin ‎and Whore, I am not ashamed for what I discover, this is the Woman. This was the sperm I ‎planted in the intercourse within the workshop on the “harmonization of femininity”.‎

Mariam Prokou, my so dear teacher, taught me to love movement, through the Harmonization of ‎Femininity and self-concentration. Mariam possesses a quality out of the ordinary: When ‎teaching, she shows that she is in love what she is doing and tries always with her fine character ‎and her patience to help us learn, to cherish what we are doing and to create. She really is ‎exceptional and I love her dearly.‎

I wish to thank you be because with your dancing classes in you School you made me love ‎dancing; you are superb as a human being and an excellent dance instructor!‎

Mariam is a very pedagogue teacher. She has a long experience and she transmit it with a lot of ‎kindness. She takes time for each person to explain how to progress. She s a sweet person, who work ‎with her heart. It s a real pleasure to learn with her.‎

Every woman is a unique expression of the godly-holy Female. To reach equilibrium we need to ‎make contact with all the qualities which correspond with our female nature inside us. With some ‎we may have already a balanced and healthy relationship, with some others not. Through the ‎movements of oriental dancing and the class on feminine harmonization, with Mariam’s ‎assistance, I acquired the ability to express even my more intractable feelings. In my daily work ‎as a psychologist I had experienced situations of emotional stress and great pressure, the result ‎being that I frequently felt rigid, as if wearing an armour. Yet, the moment I started dancing I ‎relaxed, I came in touch with emerging sensations and I was transformed into a strong, beautiful ‎and seductive woman, in full control of herself and with indescribable self-confidence. I learned ‎to dance first for myself and then for others. I thank the opportunity which was given to me to be ‎part of an action linking body and soul.‎

I met Mariam Prokou in an unconscious need, which took shape as a search to return to my ‎authentic self and allow it to find expression in the movements of dance and in the beauty of ‎femininity as a source of vital energy. Mariam Prokou is a Priestess of the art of oriental dance. ‎She can initiate us, in the sense of an introduction through teaching; to guide us so as to make ‎contact with all our female qualities, to embrace them and to allow them to find expression in our ‎own distinctive way. Once we achieve that as women, we can then connect with our male ‎qualities and harmonize them with the female ones, so that care, love and compassion become ‎equal to strength and action. The full internalization of the gifts of both actions and the chance to ‎make possible their unity in and out of ourselves contribute to a world of peace, maturity and ‎evolution. ‎‎