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Main Articles
The
Syrtos in Lesvos To
understand dance in Lesvos, you need to go back a hundred years,
to the time when Mytilini was an island suburb of Smyrna, and Athens
was a foreign country. At that time Smyrna was a major international
cultural centre – “the Paris of the Levant” –
and most of the music and dances of Lesvos came from there and not
from Athens or mainland Greece. The so-called Greek National Dances
– Kalamatianos, Tsamiko, etc. – were introduced into
Lesvos by the Greek schools.
The
Contribution of Individual Dancers to a Community Dance Tradition A
community is made up of individuals, and even in a small Greek village
they do not all dance in exactly the same way. The dances regarded
as characteristic of a village are the shared creation of the individual
dancers, past and present, who dance there. Individuals dance in
a way that comes from their own experience of seeing other dancers
in the village and dancing with them, and thus the tradition is
handed down. Each dancer will have had a slightly different experience
of this tradition, and so has an individual contribution to make
to the traditional dances of the village.
Children
Learning to Dance Fifty
years ago, formal lessons in Greek folk dance were comparatively
rare, and most children learned to dance their local
©2005 CH Copeman. All Rights Reserved. |