A past E-twinning project

1. DANCING DIARYDANCING DIARY
A diary full of dancing, music andA diary full of dancing, music and
fun of different culturesfun of different cultures

2. The beginning of the project
The project began as a co-operation
between two primary schools of
Greece and Slovenia out of the need
for something new, funny and
motivating for the children.

3. Recording our dances…
After agreement with our physical
education teacher we recorded two of
the most known Greek traditional
dances, “Kalamatianos” and
“Tsamikos”. The kids already knew
them since last year…

4. Recording “Tsamiko”…
Eight-year-old pupils of two D’ classes
took part in this phase.

5. …and “Kalamatiano”

6. And after recording our dances…
We watched the Slovenian dances…
All the kids loved to watch the
Slovenian dances by kids of about
their age again and again.
The music sounded familiar to them
and they were pleased to discover
that a different culture was not that
distant after all.

7. Watching “Rašpla”…

8. Watching “Ob bistrem potočku je
mlin”…

9. Slovenian dancing lessons…
We devoted about 10’ at the end of
each English lesson to watch and try
to learn the Slovenian dances. This
lasted for about 6-7 teaching hours. It
was fun but difficult as well.

10. Difficulties:
The main difficulty was that we had to
rehearse inside the classroom in a
very limited space. We couldn’t do
this in the hall as the music would be
annoying for those having a lesson,
or the physical education teacher
might be using the place at the same
time.

11. …More difficulties
When we eventually managed to
learn two of the dances, we couldn’t
videotape them because of the
weather. It kept raining everyday and
we couln’t use the hall to perform as
all the pupils of the school were
staying inside during breaks and
physical education lessons because
of the rain.

12. Phew! we did it!!
So you can watch us Greek pupils
dancing “Rašpla” and “Ob bistrem
potočku je mlin”. We really had a lot
of fun. My pupils still ask me in each
lesson: “Miss, will we dance today?”
(We never managed to dance “Kovtre
šivat” though. It seemed so easy but
in the end of the queue there was
always a “traffic”!)

13. Slovenia by Greece 1: Rašpla

14. Slovenia by Greece 2: Ob bistrem
potočku je mlin

15. “The end”
So, somewhere here is the end of the
story. But diaries rarery have an end.
They usually go on and on… We
hope that you and your pupils will
consider this project as a trigger to
learn more about the Greek music,
culture and language and we will do
the same for Slovenia. Hope our
diaries meet some day again…
Greetings from Patras-Greece!!!