“CHILDREN SING AND DANCE FOR LOVE”
Caritas Athens’ music and dance performance
to celebrate Caritas Day 2018
Caritas’ Day 2018 was celebrated marking a huge success on Sunday, March 4th in the event titled “Children sing and dance for love”, jointly organized by Caritas Athens - also commemorating its 40 years of action – and the Lycée Léonin of Nea Smyrni, along with Schools/Members of London’s Royal Academy of Dance, in Lycée Léonin’s auditorium before a full house!
Ninety children from five schools/members of the Royal Academy of Dance (Paulina Galopoulou, Vassia Manou Dina Koutouzou, Pas de Danse and Fotini Pavlopoulou) coordinated by their Head, Ms. Ninetta Tryfonopoulou, along with Lycée Léonin’s of Nea Smyrni Youth Choir, directed by Ms. Katerina Vassilikou, were the night’s leading performers. They gave an original performance dedicated to the strongest of feelings, Love, dancing in the sounds of well-known music and singing Greek and foreign songs in the most tender and professional way, despite their young age!
The children joined on the stage professional dancer Ms. Kleopatra Kloutsiniotou, and Lycée Léonin’s alumna, Ms. Margarita Hatzi who cited verses on love among dance acts, as well as the pianists Mr. Mihalis Hanos and Ms. Elissavet Andronikou who accompanied the Lycée Léonin’s of Nea Smyrni Youth Choir.
The audience was deeply touched by the performance’s finale, with all children on stage, singing Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” receiving rounds of applause!
The event was attended by his Excellency the Catholic Archbishop of Athens, President of the Bishops’ Conference of the Greek Catholic Hierarchy and Chairman of Caritas Athens, Fr. Sevastianos Rossolatos, and Caritas Athens’ Director, Fr. Sevastianos Rossolatos, the Organization’s Vice-President and Director, Fr. Ioannis Patsis, frères Maristes, Léonin School’s General Manager, Ms. Aikaterini Mouzaki, the High-School’s Principal, Mr. Ioannis Poulakis, members of Caritas Athens’ Board, Mses. Elissavet Ioustinianou-Merritt (General Secretary), Helen Carabott (Communication, Public Relations & Third Age Officer), and Nikoletta Delatola, members of the Refugee Program’s Management Committee, Ms. Iliana Raouzaiou with her husband Mr. Theodoros Raouzaios, Ms. Georgia Fonsou with her husband Mr. Panagiotis Lagos, and Ms. Paki Papadopoulou, Caritas Athens’ Operations Director, Mr. Filippos Salimpas, New Democracy’s politician, Ms. Virginia Baimpa with her husband Mr. Konstantinos Kornaros, member of Tinos’ Municipal Council, Ms. Eirini Vidali, Caritas Athens’ members, friends, employees and volunteers (from Greece and abroad, among them the 17-year-old Hellenic-American student Spyros Xanthos with his father, who traveled both home for the second year in a row to offer their help in the daily soup kitchen), of Caritas Athens and Caritas Hellas’ employees, as well as parents and students. All together accounted for more than 600 persons!
