Val has lived in Greece since 1974 and moved to Corfu in 1977 with her husband, Dennis, who restored both Lucciola Inn and Casa Lucia. They ran the two locations together until 1987 when the business moved exclusively to the self-catering cottages of Casa Lucia. As manager she has dealt with all aspects of the business: bookings, reception, purchasing, accounts, personnel, maintenance, publicity and correspondence.
After initially concentrating purely on the regular tourist industry, she diversified into t'ai chi workshops and classes inviting teachers from Thailand, China, Greece and all over Europe. These gradually expanded to include yoga, walking tours, painting holidays, writing and poetry etc. She was at the same time practising t'ai chi as well as co-leading classes for local residents, eventually qualifying as a certified teacher in the European School of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. The regular local classes continue and expand; and she also co-teaches some of the workshops.
Alongside this, as her children were growing up, she was involved in setting up and running educational projects in Corfu, in particular the Guilford Youth Centre which provided extra-curricular activities and sports for children of all ages as well as foundation courses for University entrance abroad; and the SOS environmental group made up of several local families whose main activity was cleaning beaches and stretches of countryside, and campaigning for correct rubbish collection and disposal. She is proud that all the children involved in these projects have either gone on to become environmental officers, organic farmers, and ecological activists; or are positively leading their lives in the most environmentally friendly ways possible. Local authorities also took note and responsibility for cleaning up the island and now even have a recycling unit. An alternative, ecological way of living and conducting business is therefore second nature to her.
Zoë grew up in Corfu where Sotiris Bouhayar and Angeliki Pouli were her dance teachers and she danced with the Kerkiraiko Ergastiri Horou. She completed her postgraduate degree in Choreological Studies, Choreography and Education in 2002 at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London.
Since then she has lived, taught, danced and studied in Holland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Greece, the Ukraine, Thailand, Israel and else where.
Some of her teachers and lifelong sources of inspiration are Frey Faust, Julyen Hamilton, David Zambrano, Tew Bunnag, Kenzo Kusuda, Niskriya-Elena Kazantzidi, Gabor Maté, Amber Elizabeth Gray, her mother, her children and nature.
For over twenty years now she has been performing, choreographing and teaching with people of all ages with various conditions such as quadriplegia, autism, degenerative neurological diseases, Down syndrome, Myo-skeletal Atrophy Werdnig-Hoffmann, injuries and more. She has developed 'Ensoma', an amalgam of various therapeutic methods, movement techniques, improvisation and choreological study. 'Ensoma' cultivates detailed perception, awareness and management of the bodymind, re-connecting with the precious wisdom that we embody naturally and its innate tendency towards health and self-healing.
She is convinced that emdodied learning, where the body is fully involved, can resolve the gradual and systematic degeneration of the neurological ability to think, feel and therefore act autonomously and critically.
She is committed to educational reform, protecting the freedom of choice in education and safeguarding environments where human development is allowed, encouraged and facilitated.
She co-founded Eudec Greece, a regional chapter of the European Community for democratic education and Education Plus, the Greek Association for the support of Alternative and Emancipatory forms of education.
She runs Spring Academy an intergenerational and interdisciplinary learning community without borders based at Casa Lucia.
Since 2009 she has co-directed the artistic, educational and cultural projects at Casa Lucia and is a resident Ensoma practitioner.
You can find out more about Zoë and her work here www.ensoma.gr