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Shantom

The place of creative self-expression and peace of mind

The non-profit organization Shantom House of Culture is housed in a modern multi-purpose cultural building made with responsibility and loving care. It was created in order to provide alternative methods of exercise and therapy as well as high-quality entertainment for body-mind health and well-being. It offers courses in yoga, creative arts and martial arts, Pilates, Dance Movement Therapy and dances from all over the world.

Shantom House of Culture condenses and shares knowledge and wisdom from different world traditions with all those who care about their personal and spiritual evolution. The teachers and all the staff have the knowledge, the experience and very importantly, the willingness to communicate and to impart this to their students.

Respect for diversity is an essential principle for us, since it promotes the realisation of the union among all beings and leads to harmonious, peaceful co-existence.

classes and events at shantomShantom offers

  • Weekly courses (Yoga, martial arts, Pilates, dances from all over the world, Dance movement therapy) by experienced and carefully hand-picked instructors, each one among the best in their field.
    The Greek Bharata Natyam Academy, the only professional school of its kind in Greece, offering  Bharata Natyam lessons.
  • Workshops: We regularly host workshops/seminars, either to delve more deeply into the regular weekly lessons* or workshops with invited instructors on similar or different subjects. Moreover, courses like Dance Movement Therapy are offered under the format of a monthly workshop, because it allows for a more complete experience.
    * For students of the yoga weekly lessons, we offer two whole-day yoga workshops during the winter months and a 7-day retreat (outside Shantom) in the summer. For T’ai Chi students, we organize one-day or two-day workshops in a natural location (usually Mount Parnitha).
  • Alternative therapies: Personal sessions are offered in a room equipped with all the needful to provide a complete experience of relax and well-being: aromatic sticks, candles, essential oils and appropriate lighting.
  • Events/Performances: The specially made  ground-floor hall can be converted into a small theatre, with professional light and sound equipment. This theatre hosts the school events, the performances of the Leda Shantala Dance Theatre, lectures, concerts and all sorts of events.
  • Three beautiful dance halls: to rent for our lessons, seminars and events. See the dedicated page for details. 

Leda Shantala with Smaro StefanidouShantom's history

The concept for the creation of the Shantom House of Culture was born to Leda Shantala through her deep and sincere need to share the knowledge gained from her studies (France, India) and the research journeys all over the world. Her goal was to make yoga, culture, art, creative expression, the discovery of a new way of life, become part of our everyday life.

The building was conceived right from the start with this in mind. With inspiration, care and thought, about how such an alternative professional space should be structured in order to be able to cater to the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of modern man.

With the precious support, wisdom and love of her mother, actress Smaro Stefanidou, Shantom was completed in 2003. A modern, environmentally-friendly three-storey building full of sunlight, with beautiful colours, large windows and views on greenery, it is showered with positive energy and blessings, since it was built on a lot where Leda’s mother and relatives lived after reaching Greece in 1922, as fugitives from the Asia Minor catastrophe.

Today Shantom is a warm and hospitable place, a stable reference point in the life of many students who have seen positive changes in their lives through all that it offers and symbolizes for each one of them.

shantom cultural buildingEstablishment – Location

Shantom is an innovative example of a multi-purpose cultural building. It is a three-storey building, of approx. 400 square metres, architecturally conceived and constructed with the view of hosting many different activities.

It is a paradigm in the municipal urban planning, since it is the first cultural building in Chalandri and its installations complies to the specifications of the Greek Ministry of Culture.

It includes three studios of different sizes and different aesthetics (colours, lighting, curtains, blinds).
They all have a wooden floor  resting on battens, good sound-proofing and they offer the possibility of customized lighting, whether intense or discreet or even evocative (with spot lights), so that each course can adapt it to its own needs.

In the middle of the building, on the 2nd floor, we find the reception and the lounge of 75 sq.m which is the favourite place for students to relax and socialize.

Shantom is located in Kato Halandri, at a 5-minute distance from subway station “Cholargos” (line 3).