According to Kosmadakis’ statements to ellines.com network, his immersion in dancing occurred by chance. He had been involved with artistic gymnastics for 12 years and had received numerous distinctions across Greece.

Dancing became part of his life after a friend of his had invited him to attend a dance seminar, where Kosmadakis met a choreographer from Paris, Bruno Agati.

Agati proposed that Kosmadakis travel to France and audition for a public dance school in Montpellier, where he could continue his dance studies.

Kosmadakis followed the advice of Agati and excelled by receiving a scholarship from the dance school (he was one of three recipients). His former experience in artistic gymnastics proved valuable and helped him reach the top.

At the end of his studies, Kosmadakis worked as a dancer in Disneyland. Afterwards he worked at a Paris cabaret “Paradis Latin”, at “Lido”, and for the Opera, taking part in several plays, such as “La Vie Parisienne”, “Faust”, “The Merry Widow”, etc.

The hard work and effort he put in dancing the 3-minute-long solo part of French Cancan dancer “Valentin le Désossé” (i.e. Valentin the boneless), was Kosmadakis’ ticket to the worldwide famous cabaret of Moulin Rouge.

Antonis Kosmadakis won the Guinness Award with Moulin Rouge last year for a dance move called “serpillere”.

Eliades met with French Deputy Chief of Staff Admiral Philippe Combes, who paid an official visit to Cyprus at the invitation of Cyprus’ National Guard Chief, Lieutenant-General Stylianos Nasis.

Describing the meeting as “quite interesting,” Eliades said Combes’ visit took place in the framework of the defensive agreement between the two countries.

“Towards that direction, a programme of cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries for 2012 was signed earlier,” he added.

The Conference, which focuses on the study of this period, will host French and Greek art -, literature -, architecture -, photography -, theatre – and decorative arts historians; musicologists; and architects; who will investigate the cultural relationships between Greece and France in various cultural fields, and will attempt to highlight the relationships between the two countries through artistic production and their more general intellectual life.

The Conference Scientific Committee, as well as that of the Research Programme, is comprised of:

Lucile Arnoux – Farnoux (Université François Rabelais, Tours)
Sophie Basch (Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris – IV)
Polyna Kosmadaki (Benaki Museum)
François Loyer (CNRS)
Evgenios Matthiopoulos (University of Crete, IMS-FORTH)
Paul-Louis Rinuy (Université Paris VIII)
Panagiotis Tournikiotis (National Technical University of Athens)
Maria Tsoutsoura

Announcements and discussions will take place in Greek and French with simultaneous interpreting in both languages.

The Conference continues at the Auditorium of the Institute Française d’Athènes (21/01/2012)

In Greece, historic newspaper Eleftherotypia is on the brink of bankruptcy, with 800 employees in danger of losing their job overnight. The French report characterizes the situation as an utter catastrophe.

“For the past two years Greek mass media have been at the centre of an economic whirlwind and the only way out of this seems to be filing for protection from the creditors under Article 99 of the Bankruptcy Code” reads Libération.

The Libération correspondent article from Athens entitled “Greece: Bankruptcies and strikes at the front” makes a special reference to DOL Group, private channel ALTER, Eleftherotypia and Apogevmatini newspapers, which are facing imminent collapses.

Many French have expressed their wish to travel to the homeland of the mighty military strategist after having visited the exhibition at the Louvre and walking among 600 exhibits from the era of Alexander the Great.

The Greek National Tourism Organization in Paris has been receiving hundreds of emails and phone calls asking for more information about tourist attractions and archaeological sites in Northern Greece.

The Franco-German politician of the European Green party referred to the European debt crisis and suggested adopting a new joint policy, which will replace the current insufficient system, and will lead the Eurozone countries safely out of their downward financial spiral.

“What we need is a policy that will reinforce all we have managed to achieve so far. This means we need a Europe able to take decisions on how it will impose its fiscal stability measures. We have to promote the reconstruction of Europe and invest in such a way that our common economy will eventually exit the crisis” added Mr. Bendit.

Once again, the co-president of the group European Greens–European Free Alliance in the European Parliament expressed his belief that the German government has failed to explain to its people the equivalence between European and national interests. “If governments are smart, they must make their people understand that the European interests are similar to their national ones” emphasized Mr. Bendit.

Should the Euro collapse because of the German interests, then these interests will also be affected by the euro’s devaluation. According to Mr. Bendit, it is the current European economic framework that enabled Germany to become such a strong economy.

“The time has come to let the people of Europe know that our union is not suffering from a surplus but rather a Europe-feeling deficit” concluded the politician.

The name behind Diesel’s Black Gold collection, Kokosalaki is best-known for Grecian-inspired drapery and her return to Paris catwalks follows an appearance of her latest Diesel line during New York Fashion Week.

The designer sent out a collection in keeping with the style that her Sophia Kokosalaki brand is known for – pleating, folding and draping fabrics – but she continues to push those trademark looks forward while deftly adding intricate beading on dresses to her repertoire.

Sophia Kokosalaki’s collection is wearable, yet edgy, incorporating a cool London look along with her Grecian roots. Her styles are unique. classy, feminine, and definitely capable of making a fashion-statement.

Kokosalakis’ trademark style often features the classic Grecian draping combined with handcrafted elements, in an innovative fusion. Her specialty is soft flowing dresses, and her work with knitwear and leather has also drawn praise. Aiming to produce clothes that are perennially popular, Kokosalaki fuses the old and the new.

The London-based designer was born in Athens in 1972 and gained a degree in Greek and English Literature before moving to London where she secured an MA in womenswear from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

After her career had been launched by UK Vogue magazine, she received the Elle Designer award and Art Foundation Award for Fashion in 2002 and New Generation Designer award in 2004, and receives regular editorial from Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and W” magazines. In autumn 2006, she was appointed Creative Director of the Vionnet fashion house but resigned in May 2007, stating that she would concentrate on the development of her own label.

During a successful career, her designs have been worn by leading names such as Kirsten Dunst, Christina Ricci, and Chloe Sevigny, Vogue reports.

The original French “Movement of Nantes” unfolded in other European countries with its supporters submitting applications to local embassies of Greece to acquire the Greek citizenship.

Under the slogan “Solidarity with the Greek people. I, too, am Greek” the movement has issued last year a ‘Declaration of Nantes for Greece’ and the numbers in people filing an application to get the Greek citizenship is growing day by day.

Read the Declaration below from HappensInGreece.com:

Solidarity with the Greek people! I, too, am Greek! 
We demand double nationality!

Enfuriated by the cowardice and lack of imagination of the Western
governments—including our own (1)—towards the dictatorship of the
financial markets;

And disgusted by the current humiliations being imposed on the Greek
people, shamefully accused of excess and dishonesty, pronounced guilty
without being allowed a defence (2), condemned to endless austerity
and penitent contrition, in a language that evokes 1940 and Pétain
with its “moral order,” “effort” and “spirit of joy;”

And certainly not forgetting those who now sacrifice Greece to the
financial speculators, pretend that “economic fascism” will content
itself with the little countries, sparing themselves…

… those same people who abandoned Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in
Munich in 1938, hoping that he would be satisfied with this new prey,
following the cowardice shown to the Spanish republicans (3);

We will no longer support these nouveaux riches (the triumphant 1% of
the globalised world), who ignore the moral debt that humanity owes to
the Greek nation (4), which sowed the first seeds of direct democracy
(5), based precisely on the abolition of debts and the emancipation of
citizens reduced to slavery by their indebtedness 2500 years ago (6).

For all these reasons, we are all Greeks. We want to send a clear
signal right now that we will no longer collaborate a minute longer in
passivity towards the financial regime imposed on Greece (7). We wish
to express our solidarity with Greece, and to share, at least
symbolically, the fate of its people.

We therefore ask for dual Greek nationality, by making a formal
request to the Greek ambassador in our country. We will launch this
campaign with a list of primary signatories on the 24 November 2011, a
date that is also the anniversary of a significant action by the Greek
resistance at the Gorgopotamos Viaduct on the night of the 24/25
November 1942 (8).

“Declaration of Nantes for Greece,” 11/11/11.

“Your excellency, in solidarity with your country, I, the undersigned………….. request personally to be counted at heart a Greek, to enjoy the rights and duties of dual nationality, and to express this international citizenship with a view to the establishment of universal democracy in liberty and equality, twenty-five centuries after the time of Solon, Clisthene, and Pericles. Thanks in advance for your response, and in fraternity with your people. “

My name, town and country of residence follow, along with my profession and other relevant personal information (blogger, musician, father, student, Hellenist, age, etc.): FAMILY NAME, First name………… Town……….. Country of residence……. Profession and other personal information…………….. Where to send it ? In France, send a letter to l’Ambassade de Grèce, République hellénique, 17 rue Auguste-Vacquerie, 75116 Paris (Telephone : 01 47 23 72 28, Fax : 01 47 23 73 85 ).
Copy and paste this text, or write a personalised letter to the embassy. When you have done so, send a copy to the following list of
email addresses (copy/paste the entire line):

mfapar@wanadoo.fr, grinfoamb.paris@wanadoo.fr, info@amb-grece.fr, grpresse@magic.fr, jesuisgrec@numericable.fr, 

(The first address is that of the Greek embassy in Paris, the next two
are those of its press office and communications office which must be
informed of your application, the fourth is the Greek office at the
Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and the latter is the liaison address
for this initiative for information and coordination).

You can also post a personal comment on the dedicated blog:
http//:www.jesuisgrec.blogspot.fr

Notes on the call for solidarity:

Note 1: We will never forget the paternalistic disdain displayed towards Greece by the leaders of Germany and France, an arrogant and vexatious attitude, made all the more scandalous by the fact that it is these two countries whose major arms deals with Greece have ruined the country.

• We are shamed by the Merkel-Sarkozy couple, who lecture at Greece when it is down, forcing upon them a treatment that is as highhanded and inept as that of the bloodletting physicians of old, medicine which they next plan to administer to their own people.
• We cannot accept that, for the first time in the history of mankind, a country will lose its political sovereignty at the diktat of financial markets, merely to defend the investments of the privileged 1% of the world, who have bought themselves government bonds.
• We will not allow these slanders towards the Greek people to pass, while the responsibilities of the profit-mongers and international traffickers and their accomplices remain ignored.

Note 2: Nor even to express themselves in a referendum.

Note 3: Churchill’s well known comment after Munich: “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.” Gandhi’s comment from India is less well  known: “Europe has sold her soul for the sake of seven-days’ earthly existence. The peace Europe gained at Munich is a triumph of violence; it is also its defeat.”

• We do not forget General Faucher, the French mission chief in Prague, who, sickened by the Munich agreement, submitted an honourable resignation to the French government, and then requested Czech citizenship. General Louis-Eugène Faucher (1874-1964) had lived for twenty years among the Czech people. On his return to France, he joined the resistance against the Nazi occupation, was arrested and deported to Germany, and survived to return home in 1945.

Note 4: Because Greece has given the world the inspiring myth of Antigone, the unconquerable defiance of conscience in the face of arbitrary tyranny;

Note 5: Because Greece gave Europe the first seeds of direct democracy (not delegated to a class of professionals, but exercised directly by an assembly and by drawing lots),

Note 6: And because the first act of the newborn Athenian democracy, though but a fragile and imperfect shoot, under the rule of Solon in 594 BCE, was precisely the abolition of debts and the general emancipation of citizens reduced to slavery by personal indebtedness. But who remembers that? We do not forget the eminent and heroic Greek resistance, which strongly participated in the liberation of Europe from Nazism.

Note 7: The controls imposed on Greece are a blatant coup d’etat against European democracy, a deliberate suffocation of its civil society, a material and moral humiliation of its people, which will
inevitably spread in a domino effect to neighbouring countries, including our own, with a risk of pre-fascist crisis.

Note 8: On the night of the 24/25 November 1942, the destruction of the strategic Gorgopotamos railway viaduct between Thessaloniki and Athens was an important joint action between two major elements of the Greek resistance: the communist EAM-ELAS and the non-communist EDES-EOEA, with the support of British special forces.

Note 9: The N.e.u.f association organises the Fête des langues (Festival of languages) and walking tours commemorating the resistance against fascism in Nantes (Pays de la Loire/Brittany, France). This association was instrumental in achieving the transparent publication of public finances on the internet in 1995, and in 1997 launched the “Réveillon de 1er mai” (Eve of the 1st of May) outside the Paris Bourse (Stock exchange), the first demonstration in the western world for the Tobin tax on financial speculation and against tax havens. N.e.u.f. also participated in the “Call to the youth for resistance”
of the 8 March 2004 with ATTAC, and the Décapol Declaration for Ten new rights for the coming century.

“What I wish is that our Turkish friends do not overreact,” Juppe said as Ankara announced to take diplomatic reprisal measures by recalling Turkish ambassador to Paris, suspending all political visits and freezing military cooperation with France.

In 2001, France passed a law recognizing the killing of Armenians as genocide. Five years later, the French National Assembly first passed a bill considering an offence to deny the mass killing of Armenians but was rejected by the Senate.

Forged by members of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling party Union for Popular Movement (UMP), the bill mandated a 45,000-euro ($58,750) fine and a year in jail for offenders.

Turkey which repeatedly rejected the allegations considered Paris genocide bill a move to win the votes of 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France in next year’s elections.

Tension clouded Franco-Turkish economic and political relations as French head of State stands firm in refusing Turkey bid to join the European Union.

(source:ChinaDaily.com)