Yannis Economou grew up in Athens Greece and came to Chicago in 1984. His first organized Greek folk dance experience was with the troupe of a local Greek church. In 1989, Yanni along with his brother Kosta founded the Orpheus Dance Troupe.

As one of the principal instructor of Orpheus, Yanni has conducted the beginners, intermediate and advanced levels of instruction on a weekly basis. He, along with the other instructors at Orpheus have continuously increased the Troupe’s repertoire of dances by their participation in various Greek folk dance workshops in the USA, Canada and Greece.

Together with Marianna Damianides-Gudmundsson, Yannis Economou has been awarded an Illinois Arts Council Grant for 1996- 1997, for his work in maintaining and expressing the Greek community’s aesthetic heritage and tradition, in addition to the preservation of the state’s cultural heritage.

Yannis has been a judge for several years at the FDF and HDF Greek Folk Festivals, where dance groups from northern America compete in many categories.