I am Michalis Porgiazis, a dance teacher, working in Thessaloniki. My passion for dance started at a very young age, but due to the few opportunities a boy had to dance in the early 2000s, I was very late to start dance classes. After much searching, I found my passion for Hip-Hop culture. It breathed life into me, made me creative and productive and made me crazy hungry to dance.
Now, I have been teaching for 15 years and I have also started my steps in producing dance works through the Choreology team. Street dances are constantly evolving and we have to adapt with them. This has been the motivation to always want to find new ways to showcase my art! I have been able to travel to many countries to teach so that I can meet dancers from all over the world and interact with them in order to understand how they are active and express their passion for dance.
Over the years, there have been many times when I thought about quitting, as opportunities are few and far between, the world is constantly evolving and Greece is a country that doesn't give many opportunities to dancers, especially of my culture. But what keeps me strong and pushes me to keep going is the perseverance and love of my students to dance and to keep learning new things about dance!
In Greece, Hip-Hop and street dance in general have evolved a lot, especially in the last ten years. The new generation now has much more opportunities to learn, be influenced and inspired to create unique things through dance. Whether one is into freestyle and battles, or choreography, the options are many with many notable teachers across the country! My main goal now as a teacher is to marry freestyle and choreography and point out to my students the necessity of developing in both of these tools.
