Athena Dion STAVROS STAVRAKIS
Athena’s mainstay in Miami is at Wynwood’s R House, but during the summer you can find her performing in Mykonos, Greece, which she calls “the Miami Beach of Europe.” Regardless of location, onstage is right where she’s always wanted to be. As a kid, her Greek family encouraged that spirit. “They’d have me put my grandma’s dresses and makeup on. It was all innocent.” But then, a shift: “I forget at what age, but at some point it became: ‘Stavros, you’re not supposed to do that.’ I realized quickly that this was going to be a problem.” Later, his first romantic relationship was with a drag queen. “I wasn’t doing drag,” Athena explains. “I was just a gay kid going to the clubs. I was behind the scenes, in the dressing rooms, and I just fell in love.” It wasn’t long before “Athena’s girlhood phase,” as she calls it, was born. She scored her first drag job as a door greeter at a club in Fort Lauderdale in 2011. She was also attending Florida International University, living at home, and leading a double life—with her drag gear hidden in a bag under her bed. The secret was concealed … until it wasn’t. 76
“I came home one day, and my bag was out from under my bed,” she recalls. Athena had to get honest with her mother. “I was like, ‘I got a job where I’ll be dressed up in women’s clothes. I want the opportunity to do this; it’s going to build my career.’” Soon after, she landed her first onstage gig. She was so nervous that she took a shot from her parents’ liquor cabinet while getting ready. “I physically started shaking while I was doing my makeup,” she recalls. But 12 years later, there’s no more shaking. “I started off as this kid getting out his childhood fantasies and trying to just exist,” she explains. “But now it’s become my career, my full-time passion.” It’s a passion she nurtures as drag mother to an ever-growing family in Athena’s House of Dion. “I never thought I had anything to offer because I always thought I was still learning myself. But there are people who actually look up to me. That little girl version of Athena—who really didn’t have that from anyone—finally came up and has this huge drag family, this great spot in Miami, and this amazing legacy to leave.” (@athenadion) «
AVENTURA MAGAZINE
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