Maria Papathanasiou is a Montréal-based contemporary dancer and choreographer, born in Athens, Greece. Her artistic practice bridges contemporary dance and aquatic practices through her long-term research-based approach, Contemporary Synchro Art (CsA), founded in 2011.

Her work explores water as a site of transformation, displacement, and embodied perception, investigating the poetic tension between stillness and motion. She develops interdisciplinary performance projects integrating choreography, aquatic environments, and somatic research.

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Artistic statement

I am not here to fit into a discipline—I am here to stretch it, soak it, flip it inside out. My work is not born from a single lineage but from the collisions between them: dance and water, form and instinct, sport and poetry. I am a choreographer, performer, and coach with a lifelong practice that dives deep into the raw, sensorial language of the body—especially when it meets water.

Raised in a loud world where noise often drowned meaning, I learned to carve space through movement. Not to be heard, but to listen—deeply, bodily. I didn’t come from ease or access. I came from contradiction, intensity, and a hunger for something else—something freer, more intentional. That hunger became my compass.

In 2011, I founded Contemporary Synchro Art (CsA)—a hybrid practice that emerged from years of navigating between the discipline of dance and the physical poetry of water. CsA is not just a technique—it’s a way of being. It lives where control meets surrender, where structure dissolves into sensation. Drawing from contemporary dance, artistic swimming, and a fierce devotion to body-mind awareness, CsA invites movement that is fluid, alert, and emotionally awake. It doesn’t seek to impress. It seeks to connect.

My career has taken me from Greece to Germany, Turkey, and now Montréal—not in search of recognition, but in pursuit of deeper questions. I’ve coached national teams, choreographed international routines, and taught workshops across Europe and Canada. But the core of my practice has always been about resistance: resisting numbness, resisting systems that prioritize form over feeling, resisting the urge to simplify what is complex.

I don’t work to fit in a category. I work to open space—for sensation, for memory, for transformation. My recent explorations—like EauMotion and tesserA—center slowness, trust, and collective embodiment, often in collaboration with dancers, circus artists, and somatic practitioners. These works unfold in water, on land, and in the liminal spaces in between. They don’t end with a bow. They ripple.

Water is my element. Not just because it shaped my training, but because it taught me how to listen—how to hold, release, adapt, and rise. In water, there is no pretending. I return to it not for nostalgia, but for truth.

My art is for those who never quite belonged. For those who question more than they answer. For those who are tired of polishing themselves for approval. I believe in messy processes, in embodied knowledge, in training that breaks you open before it builds you back up. I believe movement can be a form of rebellion, of remembering, of coming home.

CHOREOGRAPHY & ARTISTIC DIRECTION

• tesserA (2023–Present)
  Ongoing research-creation project blending contemporary dance with aquatic practices. Supported by CALQ and Culture Saint-Laurent.


• EauMotion (2020–2022)
  Research-creation project investigating fluidity, aquatic aesthetics, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Supported by CALQ, CAC, and Culture Saint-Laurent.


• A Choreographic Journey: Silence, Memory, and Movement (2025– )
  Collective choreographic research process focusing on self-discovery, memory, and embodied presence.


• StillMess (2018–2023)
  Collaborative documentary-performance with harpist Coralie Gauthier. Presented internationally.


• Ametakinit(R)o (2020)
  Self-initiated, site-responsive solo performance presented in a studio context in Taino, Montréal.


• Founder & Artistic Director — Contemporary Synchro Art (CsA) (2011–Present)
  Leads interdisciplinary movement workshops combining contemporary dance and aquatic practices in Europe and Canada.

SELECTED INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS & FESTIVALS

• Echo Echo Dance Festival — Derry, Northern Ireland | 2014


• Dance Days Chania Festival — Chania, Greece | 2014


• Almada Dance Festival — Almada, Portugal | 2013, 2015


• Akropoditi Dance Festival — Syros, Greece | 2013, 2014


• Petra International Festival — Athens, Greece | 2012


• Studio 14th Day & Theatre Empros — Athens, Greece | 2011


• Volksroom — Brussels, Belgium | 2011

GRANTS & SUPPORT (PUBLIC FUNDING)

• Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) — 2020, 2023


• Canada Council for the Arts (CAC) — 2020


• Maison de la Culture, Saint-Laurent — 2020, 2021, 2023, 2025

RESIDENCIES & AWARDS

• Montréal Arts Interculturels (MAI) — Residency for StillMess | 2015


• Akropoditi Dance Festival — One-month residency, Syros, Greece | 2014


• Martha Graham School — Scholarship & residency, New York | 2011

TRANSMISSION & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

• Artistic Coach, Club Gymslic Saint-Laurent Inc. | 2021–Present
  Ballet and contemporary dance coaching for gymnastics.


• CsA Method Coach | 2015–Present
  Guides dancers and professional artists through pool- and studio-based explorations.


• Choreographer — National Artistic Swimming Teams | 2007–2014
  Greece, Germany, Turkey; including World Championships and Olympic Preliminaries.


• Coach & Choreographer, Montréal Synchro Club | 2016–2020


• Creative Body Movement Instructor, CPE Foyer d’Enfant Hellénique & Vanier College | 2018–2023


• Intensive Choreographic Workshops, École de Ballet de Montréal | 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023


• Live Drawing & Arts Facilitation | 2022–Present
  Art Workshops Facilitator (Volunteer) - Alternative School Jonathan
  For the past four years, I have been designing and facilitating art workshops for children at the Alternative School Jonathan. This long-term voluntary engagement is a core part of my artistic and pedagogical practice. Through embodied, observation-based and playful approaches to art-making — involving the body, drawing, movement and imagination — I aim not only to transmit artistic knowledge, but to create spaces where children can express themselves freely, build confidence, and expand their creative horizons. I see art as a way of cultivating sensitivity, imagination, and openness, and this work continues to deeply inform my practice.
  
  

EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

• Three-Year Diploma in Ballet & Contemporary Dance — Niki Kontaxaki Professional Dance School, Athens, Greece | 2007–2010


• National Lifeguard Certification — Greece | 1999; Re-certification — Montréal, Québec | 2016–Present


• Level 2 Coach Certification — Artistic Swimming, Synchro Canada | 2017


• Category 3 Coach — Artistic Swimming (Junior & Comen), Hellenic Swimming Federation | 2011–2012

Additional Training (2005–Present):
Limon, Graham, Release, Flying Low, Contemporary Ballet, Contact Improvisation, Aikido, CrossFit, Callisthenics

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• Regroupement Québécois de la Danse (RQD)


• Synchro Canada