Dionysios Kyropoulos

Dionysios is a teacher, researcher and coach specialising in neurodiversity, ADHD and inclusive education. He joined Guildhall in 2018, where he teaches across the Historical Performance and Academic Studies departments. His current work explores the intersection of cognitive difference, pedagogy and coaching, informed by a background in opera, gesture and performance studies, and shaped by his lived experience as a neurodivergent academic.

His professional journey began in the performing arts developed a diverse portfolio career in performance. Initially trained as an actor in Greece, Dionysios went on to study Music at City University London and worked as an opera singer before moving into directing and teaching. His longstanding fascination with rhetoric and gesture informed postgraduate research at the University of Cambridge, a visiting fellowship at Harvard University, and a doctorate at the University of Oxford.

Dionysios has spoken at numerous conferences and taught courses and workshops at institutions including the Newcastle University, Shenandoah University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Burgos, City University London, Benslow Music and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His stage directing career has given him extensive experience in working with individuals of varying ages and expertise. Dionysios has directed 22 theatre and opera productions, ranging from an opera featuring 40 child performers aged 5 to 13 to large-scale productions with top-level professionals, and from a play with eight actors in an intimate studio theatre to a grand dramatic opera involving 60 actors, singers, dancers and acrobats.

His doctoral thesis, Teaching Acting to Singers: Harnessing Historical Techniques to Empower Modern Performers, is the culmination of twelve years of teaching practice, and constitutes a new pedagogical method for the dramatic training of classical singers. It is based on 150 historical treatises on gesture, rhetoric, emotions, personality and aesthetics, and has been shaped through the integration of modern pedagogy and theatrical practices to form a comprehensive set of innovative tools for creating captivating dramatic performances.

Dionysios is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He holds the Guildhall Certificate in Coaching & Mentoring, accredited by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC), and has completed the PASSHE Level 5 Course in Teaching Students with Specific Learning Differences in Further and Higher Education. He is also a Mental Health First Aider (MHFAider) and holds the Level 3 Award in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH).

Alongside his research and coaching practice, Dionysios is Co-Chair and Director of the Professional Association of Specific Learning Difference Specialists in Higher Education (PASSHE), and serves as SEND Governor at a primary school.