Lesvos dances with nine beats in a bar
Posted
by Christos on Sunday, May 29, 2005
In his book "Mytilini Santouri", Dimitris Kofteros considers Zeimbekika, Aptalika, Karsilamades and Aidinika together in one section. This, I think, is wise, since in practice there is no clearly defined distinction between them. Some experts will classify a dance as a Karsilamas, while others classify the same dance as a Zeimbekiko or Aptaliko.According to Kofteros, "All these dances allow free expression for the dancer. Therefore there is no essential difference between them in Lesvos. All four are danced vis-a-vis, the only difference being the tempo of the tune."
Since these dances are danced by two dancers face-to-face, with no handhold between them, each individual dancer is free to improvise his own steps to match the music and his own abilities and mood. Often you see different dancers dancing in different ways to the same music! A dancer needs to feel comfortable in order to dance elegantly and gracefully, and a young and agile dancer may be able to do more steps to a bar than a heavier or older dancer can do comfortably! In practice, of course, the dancers usually respond to each other, but it is a creative collaboration, rather than the slavish following of a fixed routine.
In particular, the dancers follow the tempo of the music, and the way it is played. It is important, as in most dances, to relate the steps to the rhythmic beat of the music.
When the music is slow, as in the Vari (heavy) Zeimbekiko, each of the nine beats can have its own step. Often the final ninth step is a closing step, enabling the dancer to begin the next bar on either foot. In the most common form of the Zeimbekiko, there is time to vary the pattern of nine slow steps by replacing one or more of them with two quick steps on half-beats. Thus the pattern "slow-quick-quick-slow-slow, slow-quick-quick-slow-slow-slow" of earlier Zeimbekika, and the modern syncopated "quick-slow-quick-slow-slow, quick-slow-quick-slow-slow-slow". In some music, the sequence begins with the final three "slow" steps. In all these, the "slow" steps are one-beat steps, and the "quick" steps are half-beat steps: making a total of nine beats.
When the music is faster, there is no time for half-beat steps, and indeed steps often take more than one beat. The beats are grouped in twos and threes. Thus there are two-beat steps and three-beat steps. For example, in the "Palaios Karsilamas" from Aghiasso, we find a "slow(2)-slow(2)-slow(2)-quick(1)-quick(1)-quick(1)" pattern. In some music this pattern is the other way round: "quick-quick-quick-slow-slow-slow", and there are many other possible combinations, but they still add up to nine beats. A popular variation is "slow-quick-quick-slow-slow-quick" (or "slow-quick-slow-quick-quick-slow").
When the music is faster still, the slow 2-beat steps become quick steps, and the three 1-beat steps are combined into one longer step, giving us the popular "quick-quick-quick-slow" of the Fast or Pedhektos Karsilamas (Aidinikos). "Aise" is an example of this.