Koula Pratsika

Thirteen women have played the difficult role of High Priestess in the lighting of the Olympic flame at ancient Olympia from 1936 to the present. The beginning was made in July 1936 with the first High Priestess in history, the great Koula Pratsika. She is still considered the pioneer of classical dance in our country. She was born in Patras on November 24, 1899, just three years after the revival of the modern Olympic Games in Athens. She studied music and dance at the Athens Conservatory and at the innovative “Helerau-Laksenburg” dance and rhythm school in Vienna. She obtained two diplomas: music and kinesiology. After returning to Greece, founded a dance school for amateurs and enforced a respectful attitude towards the art of dance, which until then was not particularly appreciated. Later she founded a professional school, which she bequeathed to the Greek state in 1972. She loved and learned about Greek antiquity and worked to revive the Delphic idea. She died alone in Athens on January 26, 1984, at the age of 85.

Later the legendary Maria Hors will say about Koula Pratsika: “I was dazzled then by that first ceremony. Pratsika was perfect, genuine, wonderful, very Greek and conveyed tremendous enthusiasm. I also remember that German woman who filmed the ceremony and the games, Riefenstahl. I feel very proud to have been a student of Koula Pratsika. She was a great legacy to the next generation.”