Marilena Tzalonikou was born in Ioannina and grew up in Metsovo in a typical Vlach family. She is married and the mother of three girls. The strong stimuli she received from her family environment, with its main axis being tradition, singing and dancing, made her professionally engage in traditional dance and its folklore, studying at the TEFAA of Thessaly with a specialization in Greek Traditional Dances.

She continued her master’s degree at the Democritus University of Thrace with her thesis on “evaluation of traditional dance as serious leisure and its effect on the satisfaction and dedication of participants”. She continues to research dances in the Metsovo region where, according to the findings, she presents the dances and their folklore context at conferences and seminars in Greece.

She is the creator of the educational program “Vasilarhontissa” where she transfers knowledge of folk tradition to children and adults with cultural interests in Metsovo in an experiential way. For 20 years, she has been teaching traditional dance in cultural clubs of the Municipality of Metsovo and Ioannina, writing complete thematic performances herself (script, direction, teaching). She has

worked as a substitute teacher in private and public education in Ioannina and Athens. For the last 8 years, she has been responsible for the course “Greek dances” at the Professional Dance School “Aristea Litou” in Ioannina, covering at the same time her concerns regarding the relationship between traditional dance and artistic dance and experimenting in this direction with boldness. She plays percussion and loves to move and travel by any means of transport.

She was a dance teacher at the first “Mousika Ktismata” in 2025.