Professional profile
Mary Vatyliotou
Mary Vatyliotou
PerformerChoreographerInstructorDance Company Director
Nicosia, Cyprus · active since 2009 · English, Greek
Career
Highlights
- Mary Vatyliotou began formal dance training at five years old, developing a broad technical foundation that included ballet, contemporary, modern, jazz, Latin, hip-hop, Greek dance and belly dance. At sixteen, she began approaching dance as a professional career and increasingly concentrated on belly dance and Oriental performance.
- In 2007, Vatyliotou participated in the "Taste of New York" introductory dance programme, where she received an honorary diploma and a scholarship for free participation in the programme's eighth annual dance workshop. She continued attending workshops and receiving distinctions through 2009 before moving to England for undergraduate dance studies. Her previous dance experience allowed her to enter directly into the second year of her degree, and she later received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sunderland.
- Following her return to Cyprus, Vatyliotou continued studying Oriental dance through local and international festivals, sharing stages and classrooms with international master teachers. Over the years she developed parallel careers as a performer and educator, appearing at events, restaurants and stage shows while also being invited to festivals as a guest teacher and competition judge.
- In 2011, she founded Release Dance School in Nicosia. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes a supportive learning environment, technical development, musicality, expression, body posture, teamwork and personal growth. Students from her school have gone on to achieve medals and distinctions in dance competitions. Release Dance School was already appearing in public Nicosia event programmes by 2012, confirming the school's early activity.