Fotis Metaxopoulos

Fotis Metaxopoulos (13 May 1935) is a Greek dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. He was born in Athens in 1935. At the age of five he lost his mother and his father took over his guardianship. At 19, he attended Palmer Schools with a view to working as a radio operator in the Merchant Navy. He was influenced by the film The Life of Rodolfo Valentino (1954) and decided to take up dancing. In the same year (1954), Angelos Grimanis, choreographer of the National Opera, was looking for dancers to compose a ballet that would tour Greece and Europe. Grimanis did not hire the then inexperienced Metaxopoulos, but introduced him to the Swiss dancer Myriam Choisy, who in turn encouraged him to take up dancing professionally.