{"id":10151,"date":"2020-07-10T08:29:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T06:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/200-years-of-history-traditional-dances\/"},"modified":"2020-07-10T08:29:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T06:29:22","slug":"200-years-of-history-traditional-dances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/200-years-of-history-traditional-dances\/","title":{"rendered":"200 YEARS OF HISTORY – TRADITIONAL DANCES"},"content":{"rendered":"

“[Folk dances and songs]… have survived as the quintessence of our history. Our history has found its expression in this treasure, which no conqueror has been able to take away.” -Dora Stratou<\/p>\n

Peloponnesian or Kalamatian sirtos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although its name testifies to its connection with the capital of Messinia, it is in fact a dance of southern mainland Greece, which became its symbol after its liberation and is often found as a Panhellenic dance. It is a pleasant dance, faster than the other types of syrtus, in 7\/8 rhythm and danced with twelve steps, which is as many as it takes for a phrase of the song. Men and women hold hands at a distance and dance in a continuous circle.<\/p>\n

There are numerous references by ancient writers and modern scholars as well as representations on vases that connect Kalamatianos with the ancient tradition. Dora Stratou says that the sirtos is the oldest dance. Stratigopoulos notes that the ancient dance “horse” was danced in the measure of Kalamatianos, while Dimas connects it with the ancient “ormos”.<\/p>\n

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EPSON MFP image<\/p><\/div>\n

Tsakonikos – The Dance of Theseus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tsakonikos, as it has come to be called, has deep roots in a very ancient tradition.<\/p>\n

Many scholars believe it is the Crane. That is, the dance that, according to Plutarch, Theseus danced with his Athenian companions when, on his return from Crete, he stopped at Delos.<\/p>\n

It is danced in 5\/4 or 5\/8 depending on whether it is danced fast or slow. The dancers hold tightly by the arm, as if trying not to lose each other and move rhythmically back and forth in spiral and serpentine formations, as if imitating the maneuvers and twists of the Crane. A very old tradition says that this dance represents the exit of Theseus from the labyrinth of Knossos in Crete.<\/p>\n

A significant part of the information in the article is taken from the book by Dora Stratou “a tradition … a history”, (Goni publications, 1973) and from the “Encyclopedia of Greek Dance” by Alkis Rafti, (Greek Dance Theatre “Dora Stratou”, 1995)<\/p>\n

Tsakonikos and Kalamatianos<\/strong>
\nTwo traditional dances with ancient Greek roots<\/p>\n

From the Eleusinian mysteries to the festivals of 15 August, the same circular dance, sometimes slow and sometimes fast, is “present” in religious celebrations, in our human joys and sorrows. Of course, as Dora Stratou, the Greek woman who saved and promoted our folk tradition, writes: “When we say that our folk dances carry our history within them, we do not mean that they are danced as they were danced 2,500 thousand years ago. That would be absurd to think that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“[Folk dances and songs]… have survived as the quintessence of our history. Our history has found its expression in this treasure, which no conqueror has been able to take away.” -Dora Stratou Peloponnesian or Kalamatian sirtos Although its name testifies to its connection with the capital of Messinia, it is in fact a dance of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mi-katigoriopoiimeno"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}