About

Odyssey Dance Lab, founded by Yannis Adoniou and Katerina Kopsidas Rodgaard, was created to foster a cultural exchange between the U.S. and Greece through dance training, workshops, and performances. Yannis and Katerina aim to guide dancers on their own journey through Greece, while exploring shared cultural, educational, and artistic values between the two nations. In its inaugural year, ODL offers dancers the chance to study, perform, and explore as they travel through Athens, the vibrant city of Patras in the Peloponnese, and the picturesque Ionian island of Lefkada.

Space is limited. Do not miss the opportunity to sightsee, immerse in Greek dance culture, perform in various venues, and collaborate with world-renowned artists—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Collaborating Artists

Yannis Adoniou
Artistic Director | Choreographer | Master Teacher
Yannis Adoniou, renowned Greek artist was born in Athens in 1968. He received his formal dance education at the Greek National Dance School (KSOT) and John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet School in Germany. Since 1998 he has been leading the critically acclaimed arts organization, KUNST-STOFF productions. In 2010 Adoniou founded KUNST-STOFF arts, a studio/art space located in downtown San Francisco.
His work challenges and reconsiders the established knowledge and social behavior that we have been taught and speaks to finding one’s personal voice.
Adoniou was a principal dancer with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, the San Fransisco Opera and a regular guest artist across the USA and Europe. In addition to his work with KUNST-STOFF Dance Company, Adoniou has created works for companies and Universities such as the National Opera House of Kuwait, Seattle Opera, Sacramento Ballet, Bonn Ballet, Opera Santa Barbara, the Modern Department at the University of Utah, Florida state University, Lines Ballet/Dominican University and Companhia Instável, Porto, Portugal among others.
Adoniou’s works have received support and acknowledgement for his work as a dancer and choreographer from the Isadora Duncan Awards, Irvine Foundation, Dance/USA, 2005 Goldie Awards, San Francisco Arts Commission, MANCC National Centre for Choreography, and the Gerbode Foundation, among others. Over the years he had the opportunity to work with dance masters and institutions that provided a reach and eclectic experience in relation to dance/performance, teaching and creation. Some of the master teachers he worked closely with were Truman Finney, Irina Jacobson (Hamburg Ballet), Alonzo King (Lines Ballet, S.F.), William Forsyth (Ballet Frankfurt), Sara Shelton Man S.F., Marina Abramovic among others.
As an educator he worked for Lines Ballet/Dominican University BFA program, U.S.A. University of Utah MFA, U.S.A., Cornish College of the Arts, U.S.A., Florida State University, U.S.A., Senior Project State University of New York, U.S.A., Companhia Instável, Porto, Portugal, San Francisco School of the Arts, San Francisco Dance Center/Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet and Akropoditi Dance Fest in Syros, Greece.

In Greece, Yannis worked closely with Vicky Maragopoulou at the Greek National School of dance (KSOT). His work has been supported by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Katerina Kopsidas Rodgaard

Dancer | Choreographer | Master Teacher

Katerina is a Greek American professional dancer, choreographer and master teacher. She has been teaching professional and pre-professional students for over 25 years. Katerina coaches and inspires students who have gone on to dance professionally and place in international ballet competitions. She is originally from Maryland, USA where she began her training with the Prochotsky Ballet School. She attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Point Park University with a concentration in Ballet. Katerina has trained extensively with internationally renowned artists in Europe and America, and she studied intensively with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Parsons Dance in New York City.

Katerina danced professionally with River North Dance Chicago, Cirqua/Rivera Art Experience, Tony Powell Music & Movement, Bowen McCauley Dance among others. She has taught master classes both in the USA and abroad to include Europe and Kazakhstan. She has performed in China with the Washington Potomac Dance Ensemble, and she has performed on national television for the Kennedy Center Honors program. She has served as rehearsal director and choreographer for dance companies in the Washington DC area. Katerina is also a licensed attorney.

Currently, Katerina is the Academy Director at the Metropolitan Ballet Theatre & Academy in Maryland, USA. She is known for her ways of teaching and inspiring dancers to be the best artists and humans they can be. She takes a creative and philosophical approach to ballet technique while focusing on alignment, energy and artistry. Her passion is to train and inspire artists from all over the world.

Tatiana Loverdou, Artistic Director, Master Teacher, Choreographer
Tatiana Loverdou was born in Patra, Greece and she is the Artistic Director of the Professional Dance School Dansarte. Her early dance studies were at the school of Leonidas DePian in Athens and later she graduated from the Professional Dance School of Despina Grigoriadou. 

In 1990, she created the dance center and dance company “Parousia”, which later evolved into her professional dance company “Salto Futuro”. Between 1989 and 2000 she attended seminars in Contemporary Dance in the U.S.A., E. Hawkins, H. Limon, Trisha’s Brown Dance Studio and Movement Research Dance Studio, New York.
Her dance company Salto Futuro, was commissioned to create two world premiers for the city of Patra under Patra Cultural Capital of Europe 2006. Her work has been performed in the festival of the Union of Greek Choreographers (Athens), the International Festival of Patras, the Athens Concert Hall and the Municipal Theater of Patras. She is certified in Yoga, Body-Mind Centering ® and in Axis Syllabus.