Who Am I?

Hey there! Thanks for checking out my page. A little bit about myself:

My name is Sophia Kopasakis but I go by the stage name Volcanic Lioness. I started out my Flow Arts performing career with the contact fire staff (pictured on my head to the right). Then it never ended from there. After that I picked up the palm torches, rope dart, dragon staff, battle axe, double speed swords, poi, acro staff, juggling clubs, fans, juggling knives, and contact juggling balls (that crystal ball thing that David Bowie plays with in the movie The Labyrinth). My love for flow arts and circus arts continues to increase as I continue to discover many different ways to express myself.

My style of movement stems from a combination of my Greek dance background, athletic upbringing, and martial arts inspiration. As a born and raised Greek-American, I did the whole shebang: Greek school, Greek dance, Greek basketball, Greek church…you get the idea. So my style of dance is very heavily influenced by my cultural ancestry. I was also a big athlete growing up. I was the fastest on both my high school’s cross country and track teams, and my collegiate club rowing team. Although these sports are revolved around repetitive movement, I really learned the value of deep discipline and constant practice through these sports. That translated well into my circus arts practice. As for the martial arts inspiration…well, I’ll be honest, I have only 1 year of kung-fu under my belt, but a whole lifetime of martial arts themed movies and shows in my head. So I have spent hours in my backyard trying to replicate certain movements with my props.