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Mariam Prokou
Feminine Harmonization
BIOGRAPFY
MARIAM PROKOU
She was born in Athens and grew up in a musical family translating music into movement and dance. She was educated in the art of Oriental Dance in Paris with various masters and with Sahrazante in Cologne. She studied at the Bollywood-Oriental London. In Egypt, she was trained by Mahmoud Reda and Farina Fahmi.
The seminars at the Oriental Dance Workshop - Harmonizing Femininity aim to connect the woman with her authentic nature with safety and respect. We return to our bodies when thoughts and words are exhausted, to experience our femininity not as a tool or role but as love, nourishment, care, emotion, unity, acceptance, and completion of femininity here and now.
Partnerships with institutions and studios are intended to stimulate and enhance individual feminine expression. At the same time, through the discovery of dance body movements, synchronization, coordination, and teamwork can be improved.
Views / Impressions
My origin is from Smyrna. Ever since I was a girl I used to dance and my grandmother, a Smyrna lady, wept because I was reminding her of the Mother Country. We danced to the sound of karsilamas and other oriental rhythms, with verses in turkish, on 45 rpm records. In the 1970s and 1980s there were no schools and teachers to teach oriental dances, at least in Athens and on a large scale. Teaching was provided at home in family feasts, from generation to generation. In the decade of 2000 I met female groups, which got together, learned and rejoiced in merriment by rejecting the “guilt of their hips”, imposed by the western culture of self-inflicted shame and submission of women and their body. I met Mariam in her classes, five years ago. I immediately sensed her deep knowledge of the body, as it applies to the dances she teaches, but, more than that, her relationship with Holy Femininity, in the name of which she “officiates in a rite”. Every one of her lessons is a ritual. It is a learning process on how motion is linked with the nature and qualities of The Woman; on how dance is an Immortal Source that nourishes your deepest roots and then every cell of your Body, your Heart and Soul. Through this bond with our Being, which materializes in our hips and hands, throats and eyes, a secret thread wakes up and finds its meaning, with beauty and mystery! This is the thread leading to Mother-Earth, the rope that binds us with Father-Heaven, that joins us to a Whole. Then, lo and behold, all these feelings are weaved together and are then metamorphosed, they emerge to the surface, their beauty shines, they become stronger and tender, they breathe freely. Life regains her meaning, its hidden Joy! I thank Mariam with all my heart! May she stand among us till old age, always watering women with her magic potion, still full of love! May all women flock to the source, to satisfy their thirst with the Immortal Water!
assiliki Papali, Drama-therapist
It was in an afternoon, when, unexpectedly, I met Mariam, with her magic touch. Those were the days, when I was convinced that, in spite of my strong desire to learn oriental dancing, my apprenticeship in a different environment had proved that it was simply beyond me! In disappointment, I had abandoned all effort. Yet, it was just then that a friend who knew Mariam better and had talked to me about her, told me: “Come and see for yourself, she is just incredible”. This is how things happened and how I went to have my first introductory lesson with Mariam. Before the class was over, I had understood how mistaken my previous rambling had been. Even before the final swaying movement, I had made up my mind that henceforth and forever Mariam would be my only teacher. This is because Mariam knows how to get hold of your body and make sway, no matter how your body is made or how old it is. Because she recognizes that it is unique and without precedent in this world and knows how to tune it like a rare musical instrument, with such mastery and effectiveness that it can soon emit, and reverberate with, its own distinctive, unique to it, music; a music which is feminine, full of female movement. Your body is transformed, it is replenished with music notes, and then even your most simple and daily movements acquire an exotic rhythm, filled with the magic of the Orient, which smells of myrrh and frankincense. Since then, I like to repeat everywhere, in all seriousness, that even to waive to a bus to stop I do it with oriental grace. And you know what? With this grace, with these hips, which are the “most beautiful in the world”, as Mariam likes to describe the hips of all of us, I have noticed that people around me change their attitude and smile. This, in my view, is a remarkable achievement. I refer to the achievement of a person who teaches you not only how to move, dance and soften your body, but also how to offer the gift of smiling and sweetness of face. Thank you, Mariam!
Athena Zacharaki, Journalist
It was through my adoration of dancing that I embarked on this journey from my early years. My long wandering, with mature and often dreamy tastes, steered me from a classical dance education to the back alleys of the docks of Buenos Aires and tango dancing, in which I had a 12-year long apprenticeship with brilliant and sensual teachers. But there came a moment when the sound-timbre of my Asia Minor roots aroused my restlessness and I found myself crossing Mariam’s path. Once in her own space, I sensed from the beginning that I was carried away by something different from my previous dancing experience. Female figures were swaying, in a stance of body-worship, tuned with Mariam, herself in a state of rapture, teaching, albeit discreetly, still achieving the group’s harmonious coordination. Believe what you wish, either my socially-imposed incredulity and ignorance which had imperceptibly entered into my convictions for this particular dance, or the technical difficulty and the discipline which I sensed it demanded, made me, at my initial contact with it, to attempt to guide my motions cerebrally, as compared to what I saw with my senses. I was, as a result, unable to penetrate the quintessence of the harmony of movement which was transporting the other group members; my sight was turned outwards and disregarded the rhythmical emotion and the harmonic power that flooded the dancing space. It was then that I felt the gentle presence of the Teacher, who touched my hands, which, in my effort to coordinate the independent parts of my body, remained stiff and fixed as if attached to the floor With a charming comment, Mariam whispered in my ear: It’s as if you were carrying supermarket bags!. I immediately relaxed, conscious of the power of a born Teacher, since, as an educationalist myself, I recognized the strength of an inborn talent. Months passed, and I was increasingly enraptured by this magic shadow that Mariam was instilling in our souls, planting in us the seeds of her love and yearning for oriental dancing. Her unique teaching was matched by her education of dance-therapy, of which we became communicants, the end-result being my conviction that in the end oriental dancing has come to stay with me for good as an inseparable element of my dancing and spiritual course. Eight years of apprenticeship have lapsed, full of love for life and my body; years during which I walk the path and relive my experiences, imbued with odours and reveries of the Orient. Thank you, Mariam..
Maria Giaoutzi, University teacher, B.Sc, M.A, M.Sc, B.Eng, Phd
I wish to thank my teacher Mariam Prokou, for all the many and beautiful things she taught us for several years about oriental dancing! We learned how to handle our body to enable our soul and spirit to reach liberation! She taught us how to express our sentiments through the movement of our hands, in itself a complete philosophy, a task to which she devoted so much time! She taught us to emphasize our femininity in our way of walking and moving and she embellished our soul, with the result that at the end of each class our mind and heart were full of attractive colours and images! We thank you Mariam for the delight of dance you offer and for showing to every woman how to gain grace and self-confidence. With all my love and regard
Mary Laskarini, Food technologist
I was asked to make a comment on the classes of oriental dancing, offered by Mariam Prokou. In the last four or five years – I have really lost count – I seek every year to take part in Mariam’s class, at least once a week. One class-hour signifies getting in touch with senses, body, music, colours, fabrics, smells, tastes; we are all asked to create in company. This is how I experience femininity, as union, joint creation, surrender, flow. There was always something to take with me and leave regenerated, as if cleansed. I badly need this encounter with femininity, it enriches me. That’s why I am there!
Betty Mantadaki, Psychologist
Learning to dance with Mariam is utterly beneficial for every woman, because it liberates, and brings harmony to, a woman’s femininity; it achieves a re-connection with archetypes and mother-nature!
Ifigeneia Sakkou, Civil servant
Back in 2015, I had the privilege to make the acquaintance of Mariam, as a collaborator. She was taking part in the activities of the Artistic Network NotForSale. It was there that I realized her exceptional knowledge and high technique she possesses as a choreographer, dancer and teacher of oriental dancing. She really has special teaching skills. The high level of her lessons extends to both professionals and amateurs, dancers and actors. Mariam conceives dancing as a culture, not as mere technique. Her love for dancing, in combination with her artistic experience and her team spirit she adopts as a person, make her a perfect collaborator. Thank you indeed, Mariam! I would enjoy working with you again!
Yannis Mantsis, Theatre director, actor, chairman of the Artistic Network NotForSale
Mariam, apart from this superb dance, teaches primarily that for a woman keen to express her femininity, what matters is not her extra-weight, her age or whatever message is conveyed by the modern media-industry. Besides, Mariam herself bursts with charm and femininity. Her lessons, in addition to the teaching of oriental dancing movements and of the harmonization of our femininity, constitute a holistic alternative psychotherapeutic process; a very pleasant process, dominated by the restitution of certain qualities – long-forgotten by some of Mariam’s disciples because of our western way of life – i.e. of femininity and joy.
Eva Tsakmaki, Bank Officer
