This document provides information on various traditional Greek folk dances, including their origins, styles of performance, and musical accompaniment. Some of the dances discussed are the syrtos, aptalikos mesotopou, politikos hasapikos, tataulianos, tsamikos, zonaradikos, ballos-pentozalli, sirtaki, zeibekiko, kamilierikos, and hasaposerviko. Details are given on the specific dance steps, regional variations, and historical and cultural influences that shaped each dance's development.

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MUSIC SCHOOL OF AGRINIO-GREECE
Comenius Project
Of Folk Music and Men
GREEK FOLK DANCES
Greek traditional music has deep roots in the music system of Ancient Greece
and a direct relation with the Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music and the folk
music of neighbouring nations in the East.
During ancient times, the space where the Ancient Greeks used to dance and sing
was called chorus.Today chorus is the sum of movements and twitchings of the
body, what in Ancient times was called orchesis or chorea. Chorus is one of the
most ancient expressive means and chronologically predates or comes after
the song.
The roots of chorus in Greece can be found approximately in 1000 B.C.
The Greek chorus, as a form of a folk creation, which is directly connnected
with the music and the song, is a result of the diversity of the life of the
Greek people, which varies from place to place, and is considered to be the
creation of a people with a longlife cultural tradition. Greece, a crossroads
of cultures, has synthesised every one of its influences creatively. The
improvised concepts, its classical roots and ancestry, and its historical
course have created the basis for this highly aesthetic artistic result, which
shows the artistic abilities of the Greek people and has marked its dancing
identity.
DANCES
Syrtos of Asia Minor
Aptalikos Mesotopou
Politikos Hasapikos
Tataulianos
Tsamikos
Zonaradikos
Ballos-Pentozalli
Sirtaki Zorbas
Zeibekiko
KAMILIERIKOS
Kamilierikos is a kind of Greek traditional dance, similar to the fast
zeibekiko and antikristos. The Kamilierikos was danced by imprisoned rebetes.
Riders of the camels (kamilierides) used to dance it as well. Today,
kamilierikos is very widespread in the rebetiko and the laiko music traditions.
HASAPOSERVIKO
The Hasapiko is a Greek folk dance from Constantinople. The dance originated in
the Middle Ages as a battle mime with swords performed by the Greek butchers
guild, which adopted it from the military of the Byzantine era. In
Constantinople, during the Byzantine times, it was called in Greek Mακελλάρικος
Xορός (Makellarikos Horos). Some Greeks however, reserve the latter term only
for the fast version of the dance.
The slow version of the dance is called hasapiko vary or hasapikos varys, from
the Greek word vary meaning "heavy," and generally employs a 4/4 meter. The
fast version of the dance uses a 2/4 meter. It is also called Hasaposerviko, a
reference to Serbian and other Balkan influences on this version of the dance.
Hasapiko served as one of the bases for the Sirtaki.

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HASAPIKOS POLITIKOS
Hasapikos evolved into the Byzantine dance of makellaridon which was performed
in neighbourhoods of Constantinople. It's not a coincidence that there is a
sifneikos hasapikos and this is probably so because a lot of people immigrated
from Constantinople to Sifnos. It was danced by butchers in celebrations of
their neighbours (esnaf). Most of the Arvanites who were wandering showed their
guns so that the Genitsaroi were afraid of them. During the Turkish Occupation,
hasapiko was danced by Arnaoutides that's why hasapiko was called Arnaoutiko.
The hasapiko was danced by having their arms on the shoulder of the other
dancer and their legs making 4 steps on the floor and the fifth in the air.
TSAMIKOS
The Tsamiko is a popular traditional folk dance of Greece, done to music of 3/4
meter. The name literally means dance of the Chams. It is also known as
Kleftikos, literally meaning dance of the Klephts.
ZONARADIKO
Zonaradiko is a traditional Greek folk dance from Thrace (Greece) that is named
after the dance's handhold. Dancers hold the adjacent dancer's zonaria (belt)
during the dance. Zonaradiko is a line dance performed in one form or another
in villages all over Greece. In each village the dance will look somewhat
different, but the basic structure is essentially the same. The same dance is
done in Bulgaria under the name Pravo. The variations below are a collection of
steps commonly done by folk dancers throughout the US and as seen done by
various groups in Greece.
Many variations of the dance exist. In northern Thrace, zonaradikos turns into
a fast tsestos dance. In western Thrace, the dance is led by the males, and the
females follow towards the end of the line. As the dance nears the end, the
first dancer moves to the centre and the others twist around him, then they
"untwist" and go back to their normal positions. The entire dance is done with
the knees bent. This position is especially evident in the Tsestos.
BALLOS
The Ballos Sirtos (from the Italian ballo via Latin "ballo" which is derived
from the Greek verb "βαλλίζω" ballizo, "to dance, to jump"), is one of the best
known Greek folk island dances in Greece. There are also different versions in
other Balkan countries. The Ballos is of Greek origin, with ancient Greek
elements.
The melody of a ballos is generally joyous and lyrical which is typical of the
music of the Aegean Islands. This couples' dance incorporates all the elements
of courtship: attraction, flirtation, display of masculine prowess and feminine
virtue, pursuit, and rejection followed by eventual capture and surrender.
Its origin is in the island culture of Greece. Men could not approach women
easily, so they created this dance in order to "flirt" with them. There are
various forms of the ballos around the islands. The simplest is one in which a
single couple goes through a series of spontaneous figures. In another version
many couples dance simultaneously as if alone on the dance floor. And finally,
in the most complicated form, a number of couples go through various figures,
somewhat reminiscent of the European minuet. Ballos songs are popular and there
are many of them.

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PENTOZALI
The Pentozali or Pentozalis is the trademark folk dance of the island of Crete.
It takes its name from its five ("pente") basic steps and its sprightly and
ultimately very fast pace ("zalos" being a rare Greek word for "jump"). The
name can thus be translated as "five-jumps", it’s typically Greek wordplay
implying that dancing can make one jump five times over. Also in the spirit of
wordplay, "zali" means dizziness, and the name of the dance can also be
understood ("five-dizzy") as one that can make the dancers dizzy five times
over.
The Pentozali is a war dance, vigorous, with high jumping movements and allows
for much improvisation. It starts at a moderate pace and accelerates
progressively. The dancers hold each other by the shoulders and form an
incomplete circle, which rotates counterclockwise very slowly, or sometimes not
at all, because most of the lively steps are semistationary. The first dancer
is expected to improvise engaging in acrobatics; in this case he and the second
dancer hold hands, rather than shoulders, and the second dancer stands still
and rigid, so that the first dancer has a stable base on which to perform. Once
the first dancer has finished his part, he is expected to break ranks and
slowly dance his way to the back of the line, yielding his place to the second,
and so on. Women also perform the dance, but their steps are more restrained
because their dress does not allow for high jumps. Traditional Cretan menswear,
on the other hand, facilitates acrobatic dancing as it includes the black
vraka, a variant of breeches that are worn tight around the waist and thighs
and extremely baggy and loose around the hips.
Pentozali music is instrumental: the main tune is played by the pear-shaped,
bowed Cretan lyre, to the accompaniment of a lute, played not in a melodic but
in a percussive-like fashion. It is the lyre player who usually directs the
flow of the dance: he improvises to signal the first dancer to improvise too,
and resumes the main tune when it is time for the first dancer to yield his
place to another.
It has often been suggested that this may be the descendant of a Minoan dance,
perhaps that of the Kouretes, a mythical troupe of ancient warriors. There is a
forgotten dance of the area of the Psiloritis Mountains where the Kouretes
lived, called Empyrrikios (from the ancient dance Pyrrichios), whose steps are
very similar to Pentozali.
SIRTAKI
Sirtaki or syrtaki is a popular dance of Greek origin, choreographed by Giorgos
Provias for the 1964 film Zorba the Greek It is not a traditional Greek folk
dance, but a mixture of the slow and fast versions of the hasapiko dance. The
dance, and the accompanying music by Mikis Theodorakis are also called Zorba's
dance, Zorbas, or "the dance of Zorba".
The name Sirtáki comes from the Greek word: syrtos (from “syro to choro” which
means "drag or lead the dance), a common name for a group of traditional Cretan
dances of so-called "dragging" style, as opposed to pidiktos (πηδηχτός), a
hopping or leaping style. Despite that, Sirtaki incorporates both syrtos (in
its slower part) and pidikhtós (in its faster part) elements.

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ZEIBEKIKO
Zeibekiko is a Greek folk dance with a rhythmic pattern of 9/4 or else 9/8
(broken down as 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/16 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/16 + 1/8 + 1/8 +
1/8).
The name is derived from Zeibek warriors of Anatolia, but old folklore said
that the name of the dance comes from the words Zei, as a derivative of Greek
God Zeus, and the phrygian word bekos, which means bread according to
Herodotus.According to this folk etymology, it symbolizes the union of the
spirit with the body and it is believed that it was danced in honor of Greek
gods.
It is danced by one person only and is of free choreographic structure. In
older times the dance was strictly solo and it was considered offensive for a
second dancer to enter the dance, which would result in conflict and possible
violence. A certain dance etiquette requires others to wait until the present
dancer stops. Traditionally, applause was not sought nor commonly given, out of
respect. This did not, however, lessen creativity, with dancers performing
feats such as standing on a glass of wine or a chair or fireplace, or picking
up a table, adding a sense of a little braggadocio and humor.
AGRINIO, April 2013
Prepared by Spyridoula Yiannakou (P.E. Teacher)
& Christina Papadimitriou (Greek Language Teacher)