Movement, making and shared stories are our tools for intercultural exchange, for caring for the place we live in, and for giving the children and teens of Leonidio more ways to imagine their future.
Panjika is a climbing cooperative, and also a place where people meet to learn together. We run free and donation-based workshops, courses and gatherings for climbers, artists, local residents, newcomers and visitors in Leonidio.
What we are working on
In a rural village, what you can learn, and who you can learn it from, is limited. Many of us grew up feeling that school and village life narrowed our options. We want the next generation in Leonidio to have more room to explore, stay curious and imagine their own future.
So we bring practices, people and partners here that would otherwise be out of reach, and we keep access free or donation-based so that cost is never the reason someone stays home. Everything is open to everyone: people who grew up here, people who moved here, and people passing through to climb.
Panjika is a cooperative: decisions, work and results are shared. Our members come from different professions, and every programme draws on several of them at once.
Jam Sessions
Sustainable Architecture
Theater Classes
Art & Crafts Workshops
Show & Tell
Summer School
Screenings
Ecology & Shared Living
and more...
We advocate for movement practices, climbing first, and also dance, somatic practices, movement improvisation and somatic coaching, as ways to create belonging and to support people psychologically and mentally.
For children, this means art- and movement-based learning, grounded in research on embodied thinking: from early sensorimotor development to adulthood, and how we use our hands and whole body for self-reflection, awareness and connection in a group.
Climbing session for kids
Somatic Session at the Old Quarry,
by LatoMeio Project (photo by Andrew Pawlby)
Aerial Movement at H.A.D.A. sector,
Eleni Danesi, 2018, (photo by Lake)
Psychology of Movement
Our courses on how sensations, movement patterns and thoughts shape each other have been met with enthusiasm and curiosity. A new cycle runs from September 2026 to May 2027, in collaboration with the LatoMeio Project, and Eleni Danesi.
Innerscapes Festival
Panjika funded the exhibitions of this LatoMeio Project festival. Its first edition brought movement and performative workshops to places around the village, connecting climbers with other movement practitioners, and hosted two neuroscientists presenting their work on the neuroscience of movement.
Climbing for Kids
Climbing was never popular in Leonidio and there is no tradition of training as kids. Since the founding of the cooperative we have been organizing free climbing courses for children from Leonidio. In the past 10 years the first generation of kids is learning how to climb.
This year, in collaboration with LatoMeio Project and SIKRUKU, we are opening a pilot makerspace in the place of a former pharmacy that operated in the village for over 40 years. We are collectively repurposing the space as an open workshop for pottery, knitting, painting, crafting, exhibitions, and other community gatherings.
Thinking with the hands becomes a way to tell stories and to connect with each other in wholehearted ways.
Together we organise the events, teach the courses and build a network of Greek and international partners. Every partnership widens what is possible here, especially for the children and teens of Leonidio.
LatoMeio Project
Leonidio, GR
Kynourio Soma
Leonidio, GR
Sikruku
Leonidio, GR
mkrz lab & mkrz collective
Linz, AT
Lernlabor
Berlin, DE
We are looking for organisations that work on creativity, movement, the environment and social impact, and want to build long-term projects with a rural community.
Primary School Teachers
Leonidio, GR
ERASMUS +
EU
BE PART OF PANJIKA
Want to join a session, partner with us or support our work?
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Join workshops, jams and talks: everyone is welcome, share your story , share your music, share your skills
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Donate to keep our sessions free
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Propose a collaboration or an exchange
connect on instagram
write an e-mail
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