Athens Hosts International Conference “Theatre/Drama and Inclusive Education”
From March 21 to 23, 2025, Athens became the vibrant hub of an important international conference focusing on theatre, drama, and inclusive education. Organized by the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr) in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA), and numerous academic and artistic institutions from Greece and abroad, the event celebrated the ten-year anniversary of the project “It could be me, it could be you” (2015-2025), dedicated to human rights and refugee awareness. Lotus project has been presented there.
The conference attracted 250 professionals from across Europe, creating an interdisciplinary space for dialogue on inclusive education and applied performing arts. Its core mission was to promote equality, challenge all forms of exclusion, racism, xenophobia, and hate speech by connecting educators, artists, researchers, and communities.
Discussions, workshops, and presentations revolved around four key themes: advancing inclusive education accessible to all, employing art as a tool for social justice and empathy, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and reinforcing advocacy and public policies to combat discrimination.
The diverse professional audience consisted mainly of teachers and trainers of all levels and fields, academics and researchers, theatre educators and artists active in formal and non-formal education, university students, youth facilitators, and social science professionals engaged in arts-based inclusive education research and practice—highlighting the event’s interdisciplinary nature.
Lotus Workshop: A Bodily and Poetic Journey to Inclusion
As part of the conference, the Lotus project, supported by Erasmus+, presented a specialized workshop titled “Embodying Words – Chair Yoga & Poetry in Inclusive Drama.” Held on March 21, 2025, this 2.5-hour session gathered 20 professionals from Greece and Europe for a creative and somatic experience combining chair yoga, poetry, and artistic expression to explore well-being, presence, and inclusion in theatre, education, and social engagement.
The workshop began with an introduction to the Lotus project, its partnership, methodology, and publication. It continued with a warm-up featuring breathing exercises and a poetic prompt (“If my body could speak, it would say…”). Chair yoga exercises followed to enhance emotional grounding through breath, relaxation, and simple postures.
Participants then engaged with poetry as a sensory experience—reading, reciting, and creating poems inspired by bodily sensations and a text by Foteini Dimitriou. A collaborative phase combined movement, breath, voice, and writing based on a poem by Maya Angelou, resulting in short performances intertwining posture, gesture, and poetry.
The session closed with reflective sharing, a collective breathing ritual, and informal exchanges allowing participants to explore available resources and discuss future collaboration and networking opportunities.
Lotus was also presented in the conference plenary sessions among other featured projects, underscoring its innovative contribution to promoting inclusive education through the arts.
This international gathering powerfully reaffirmed the role of performing arts as a catalyst for social justice, inclusion, and transformative education, opening promising pathways toward education without exclusion and rich in humanity.
