About Lia
Lia Tsolaki was born in Athens, Greece.
She studied the Theatre Dance Course at the London Studio Center in London for a year, graduated from the higher professional dance school “Niki Kontaxaki” in Athens, and was granted a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Trisha Brown Dance Company in New York City.
As a choreographer, she has worked with the National Theatre in Greece and the Greek Art Theatre “Karolos Koun”. She has also collaborated with the Athens Festival and the Onassis Foundation-Stegi in Athens, creating her own works.
For ten years she was the permanent choreographer for Peter Stein’s works. She choreographed operas for the Salzburg Festival, the Rome Opera House, the Finnish National Opera, the Stanislavsky Music Theatre in Moscow, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and more. For further information, please visit www.liatsolaki.com.
Lia, during her dancing career, has always practiced Iyengar yoga. For the last several years, she has been following an international yoga mentorship and teaches yoga in group, personal and online classes, as well as retreats. Her yoga mentor is David Meloni , who has been awarded the highest certificate possible in the Iyengar system. He is a direct student of B.K.S. Iyengar and an Advanced Senior Level II teacher, i.e. currently owning the Level 4 certificate. Lia practices yoga for 20 to 40 hours per month and follows David Meloni’s mentorship.
For the last 15 years, Lia has attended several mainstream and alternative self-development classes and seminars in Greece and abroad. She has had psychotherapy sessions for 10 years with the psychiatrist Eirini Siouti and has attended workshops and retreats with the life coach Yiota Fasouli for several years; she is practicing TM (transcendental meditation) and has completed the year-long personal growth Bob Proctor Coaching (BPC) Program.
All these practices and techniques enrich her research in exploring human nature, recovering from body injuries, inner trauma and working on evolving and thriving after experiencing traumatic events.
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What is Yoga
“Yoga is the path that cultures the body and senses, refines the mind and takes rest in the soul which is the core of our being. Yoga is more than physical. It is cellular, mental, intellectual and spiritual. It involves man in his entire being.”
“Yoga means union. The union of body with the mind and of mind with the soul.”
“Most of us are suffering in some way, physically, mentally or spiritually. The science of yoga helps us keep the body as a temple so that it becomes as clean as the soul.”
“Yoga can be seen as having three tiers external, internal and innermost, or physical, mental and spiritual.”
“It is a science which liberates one’s mind from the bondage of the body and leads it towards the soul.”
“With constant practice, one develops the sensitivity to understand the intelligence of his body and being. That is why the practice has to continue.”
From the books “The tree of yoga” and “Light on yoga” by BKS Iyengar
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My Approach
I have studied and worked as a contemporary dancer and choreographer for about 20 years. During my dancing years, I have always practiced Iyengar yoga, because I felt my body heal and coordinate with my inner part. Each practice was like physical therapy and psychotherapy at the same time. Later on, and while I was dealing with a challenging personal matter that radically changed my life, the only thing I could do was to practice yoga every day. This was my way out of this huge deadlock, to handle the immense difficulty of the situation and to rebuild my inner structure that had been totally destroyed. Through the practice of yoga, I managed to deal with, overcome and heal my physical and mental trauma, and become the best version of myself!
Since the practice of yoga may start from the body but the final objective is to achieve the conquest of the self, self-control and bliss, when I have finally touched these qualities the benefits were huge, the experience unique, and I developed such a relationship with myself which meant that I could never go back.
With daily practice I have changed my body, I live a life without injuries and pain, while at the same time enjoying an excellent physical and mental condition!
When we frequently practice yoga, we develop mechanisms and obtain tools that give us more resilience in life, the sense of dissatisfaction disappears and we feel complete and content. This is a vast wealth for the modern person who often suffers, either on a physical or mental level.
The ability to stay “still” (without tension), both in body and mind, leads to the moment when you feel that you have everything you need. You are in the right place and there is abundance.
Life is much easier when we are living in a flexible and creative body and mind. We build strong mechanisms to deal with hardship and invest effectively in our body and self, while we experience our daily life with optimism and liveliness.
Therefore, I would like to share with you all these wonderful tools that I have in my hands, so that you can also become the best version of yourself!
Because, as Rumi, the renowned Persian poet, said:
“After all, you’re just another me and I’m just another you.”
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