BIO
My name is Demetra Chiafos. I’m 21 years old and from Marion, Iowa. I’m pursuing my BFA in dance with a focus in Performance and Composition alongside my BA in Japanese at The Ohio State University. This website is a documentation of my four-year journey, as a student, an artist, and a human being.
I’ve been dancing since I was three years old. Initially I competed with a local studio, everything from ballet and jazz to Irish step and tap. In my last few years of high school I trained with Margaret Eginton and took ballet classes at a pre-professional studio in Iowa City.
I have attended the Burklyn Ballet Theatre summer intensive many times, where I was privileged to work with wonderful instructors such as John Gardner and Amanda McKerrow, setting a piece there in 2016. I was a junior counselor at BBT in the summer of 2017.
I am interested in composition, performance, and dance film. I am curious about how language and culture impact dance, compositionally and instructionally, and how religion is represented in dance. I also hope to work in the Japanese field as a translator and interpreter.
I spend my free time writing novels. I hope to publish my writings one day, which have received the Reba Elaine Pearl Burkhardt Roorbach Award and the Gertrude Lucille Robinson Award at OSU. I also enjoy playing the piano.