Maria Douvalis

Maria Douvalis was born into a Greek family settled in Belgium and completed all her schooling in Belgium while also taking Greek classes outside of school. She holds a degree in Social Sciences from the Université de Bruxelles and is bilingual in French and Greek. She has forty years of experience teaching traditional dances, with a strong specialization in Greek dances from all regions, including those that share many traditions with neighboring Balkan countries and Asia Minor. She has participated in numerous training programs and workshops in Greece focusing on particular regional dance traditions.

Maria Douvalis has been invited many times in Belgium and abroad to lead and conduct training sessions in Greek traditional dances. For nearly thirty years, she has been in charge of the Greek dance workshops at the Bal de l’Europe in Gennetines, France. She has also taught traditional dances, especially Greek dances, in various associative, school, and extracurricular settings.

In 1996, she founded and has since managed the non-profit association Tradidanse, Centre Hellénique du Folklore-Bruxelles, which organizes weekly Greek traditional dance classes for children, teenagers, and adults, divided into groups according to age and level, as well as parties, workshops, and seminars, often led by invited Greek choreographers and musicians specializing in traditional dance. Her article "Danses populaires" in the Inventaire de la Grèce (Encyclopedia Universalis, 2011), which she authored, reflects her in-depth knowledge of the origins and meanings of Greek traditional dances.