“I adore dance,” said Kalliopi Kopanitsa as she sat behind the desk of her study in Lycabetus. “In fact, I was once recommended for the Royal Ballet School.” Kopanitsa, a costume and set designer, has been hooked on the arts since she was a little girl. “When I was six, I was taken to see Sleeping Beauty,” she said, “and I just fell in love with ballets.”

Born and raised in London, Kopanitsa spent all her summer holidays in Greece. “Both my parents are Greek,” she said.

Kopanitsa’s family has a propensity for the arts. “My mother was an opera singer and my father, although he’s a lawyer, writes stories,” she said. “I also have a younger sister who is a painter, and my 12-year-old daughter, Katerina, has become very good at painting as well.”

During the 1970s, Kopanitsa moved to Greece permanently. In 1981, she began as a set designer for the theatre and Greek television. She also worked in foreign film productions.

“I remember the opening night of the play Sleuth, starring Andreas Barkoulis,” began Kopanitsa. “I had forgotten the key props for the performance, they were so important that they had to be there when the curtain went up. So I ran backstage and just threw them at one of the assistants,” she said tearing with laughter. As all shows do, this one too went on. “I remember being so distraught at what I had done, I just sat at the bar drinking whiskey, hoping to get over it.”

Aside from Barkoulis, Kopanitsa has worked with other acclaimed Greek actors. “Irene Pappas is one of the easiest people to work with,” she said.

One actor she said that she would love to work with in the future is Daniel Day Lewis. “I’ve met him two or three times in the past. He is a modest and intelligent man,” Kopanitsa said. “He appeals to me because of his complexity as an artist.”

Kopanitsa’s latest project was “She who Reminisces,” a film exhibited during Thessaloniki’s Film Festival in November. “The atmosphere was very exciting because we had top artists like Francis Ford Copolla and Dean Tavoularis.”

Working in theatre has taught Kopanitsa many things, many of which she passes on to her students at Deree. “You have to keep your eyes and ears open and try not to have pre-conceived ideas because they narrow the way you look at things.” A teacher since 1998, Kopanitsa said that teaching keeps her young and alert. “[Teaching] is a source of pleasure for me.”