Greek dance

Die traditionellen Frauentänze des Balkans und des Nahen Ostens werden auch heute noch zu Hochzeiten und Dorffesten getanzt, doch ihre Wurzeln gehen auf die uralte Kultur des Neolithikums zurück. Damals wie heute ist eine ihrer wertvollsten Gaben, dass sie die Werte der Gemeinschaft lehren, halten und stärken.

In the Findhorn Sacred Dance Festival in 2021 I taught eleven traditional dances from Greece, Armenia, and Bulgaria, focusing on 6-step (3 measure) and 8-step (4-measure) patterns. In my talk on 'Dances of the Great Mother' I described some of the ways these dances connect to the Great Mother and embody the mothering principle. These key points are listed here.

In harten Zeiten ist es natürlich, dass uns nicht nach Feiern zumute ist. In der glob- alen Pandemie fühlen sich viele Tänzerinnen und Tänzer isoliert und gestresst. Ohne die Freude und Verbindung des gemeinsamen Tanzkreises fällt es schwer, bedeu- tungsvolle Wege des Feierns zu finden, wenn wir nicht wie gewohnt zusammen sein können.
Und doch ist ganz besonders jetzt Kreistanz unsere beste Medizin: er bringt Menschen zusammen, schützt Gesundheit und Glück, erweckt die Lebenskraft und schafft Gemeinschaft. Traditionelle Tänze kommen zu uns von Völkern, die in ihrer Geschichte Schwierigkeiten bewältigen mussten: die Tänze reflektieren das und lehren uns wertvolle Fähigkeiten im Umgang mit Zeiten der Herausforderung und Veränderung. In diesem Artikel werden vier Beispiele von griechischen, armenischen und bulgarischen Tänzen vorgestellt – Pogonísios, Tsámikos Flámbouro, Mairam Govand und Pravo Rodopsko Horo – die uns dabei helfen, uns für Freude zu entscheiden und das Leben zu feiern.

Tsámikos is one of the oldest and most widespread dances in Greece, danced throughout the mountains and plains of the mainland and the Peloponnese. In antiquity, this was the area where the cult of Dionysos thrived, and before that, the worship of the Great Mother. Many aspects of this early worship survive in elements of the Tsámikos today, which this article explores in relation to the symbol of the sacred triangle.

Es sabido que en la búsqueda del Sur habría algo importante en juego: nada más y nada menos que el comienzo de todas las cosas, la generatividad de la propia vida y el entendimiento de la muerte en perspectiva revificante. Los egipcios orientaron sus formas hacia el sol naciente del Este que terminaba poniéndose en el reino de ultratumba, pero sabían bien que las fuentes de la vida brotaban en verdad en el Sur, con el nacimiento del Nilo cuya agua lo inundaba todo cada año, en un ciclo de vida y muerte que el cuerpo desmembrado y resucitado de Osiris sintetizaba. Su convicción sagrada consistía, como dice su libro de los muertos, en la esperanza de "salir de nuevo a la luz del día". El sol que en el Sur cae sobre los cuerpos oscureciéndolos, marcándolos, ilumina también un territorio libidinal de nuestros sueños y deseos, como una utopía sensitiva, corporal y existencial que determinó el pensamiento y la acción de muchas vidas, afectadas por su experiencia directa o por su impacto imaginal. Pues hay que reconocer que el sur también es un paisaje interno: ni Petrarca, ni Winckelmann, ni Goethe, ni Hölderlin, ni Hegel, ni Heine, ni Keats y ni siquiera Nieztsche, estuvieron nunca en Grecia. El caso es que esa experiencia sureña, esta especie de veraneo intelectual decisivo, viró la percepción de muchos filósofos, artistas y poetas invistiéndolos de una tonalidad nueva. Owen Jones en la Alhambra de Granada, Nietzsche en Niza, Van Gogh en Arles, Rilke en Ronda y Toledo; Bataille en Madrid, Lorca en La Habana... ¿Qué encontraron?

For thirty years I have been researching and teaching women’s traditional circle dances of the Balkans and Near East, which have been danced for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, and are still danced today at weddings and village celebrations. The method I’ve developed is to compare common motifs in archaeological finds, embroidered textiles, dance patterns, and song words. I see these four forms of women’s artistic expression as modes of unwritten communication, transmitting ‘hidden information’ which, in the words of Marguerite Rigoglioso, 'may have been deposited for safekeeping in those great repositories of the forbidden – myth and folklore – where they have remained veiled in plain sight for two millennia.' (1) In this article I would like to share some of what I have observed about women’s dance traditions in remote villages on the slopes of Mount Olympus in Greece, and the ancient wisdom encoded within them, which I believe has its roots in the Goddess culture of Neolithic times.

All over Greece, the Balkans, Russia and Ukraine, Central Asia, India, and in Scandinavian and Celtic lore, myths and legends tell of nymphs, nereids, naiads, and Muses. Also known as vily (whence comes the English term 'willies'), these priestess/Goddess figures are divine or semi-divine female beings associated with water, clouds and rain; birds, flight and journeys between worlds; trees, vegetation and healing herbs; prophecy and divination; fertility and blessing, and music and dance. In Greece they were worshipped as early as the 8th C BCE.

‘Nymph’ derives from nyfi (νύφη), bride, while ‘Muse’ most likely derives from the Indo-European root men-, which also gives us the words ‘mind’, ‘memory’, ‘menses’ and ‘spiritual activity’. The Muses are thus the maiden Goddesses of memory, music and dance, protectors of spoken knowledge encoded in myth and sacred poetry. Usually three or nine in number, they sing and dance near waters and fertile greenery, or, hidden in cloud, draw near to human homes.

The Greek Muses were born by the Pierian spring, the fountain of knowledge and inspiration, on the slopes of Mount Olympus: ‘In Pieria did Mnemosyne (Memory) ... bear nine daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free from care, a little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus. There are their bright dancing-places and beautiful homes...’ (2) The archetypal Muses feature in many Pierian songs and dances today – almost as if the mountain itself remembers.

Με το 93ο τ. του περιοδικού Αρχαιολογία και Τέχνες ολοκληρώνεται το πρώτο στην ελληνική γλώσσα αφιέρωμα για το χορό στην ιστορική του διάσταση. Το αφιέρωμα, καλύπτοντας το διάστημα από την αρχαιότητα έως τις μέρες μας, δεν επιδίωξε να συμπεριλάβει στην ύλη του κάθε σχετική λεπτομέρεια για το χορό ούτε να επικεντρωθεί σε μια και μόνη θεματική. Αντίθετα, μέσα από τον πλουραλισμό των επιλεγμένων κειμένων, προσπάθησε να συλλάβει την αξία και τη σημασία του χορού στη διαχρονική πορεία εξέλιξής του και από το επιμέρους να προτάξει σύγχρονες τάσεις και απόψεις, αναδεικνύοντας διαφορετικές παραμέτρους από τη σκοπιά των κοινωνικών επιστημών

Summary:
The living tradition of Greek dance attracts and inspires foreigners from all over the world. This paper looks specifically at ways in which women's dances of Greece can have meaning for non-Greek women of different nationalities and religious beliefs. I have been researching and teaching Greek, Balkan and Armenian circle dances all over the world, in combination with my work as a dance movement therapist, for thirty-five years. For women in my seminars, the dances are not merely an enjoyable form of exercise and an opportunity to broaden their awareness of different cultures (although these are worthy goals, which Greek dance can fulfil in almost any context). In the women's circles I observe, the dances also offer personal insight, healing, and therapeutic transformation for the individuals who dance them. Thus Greek dance today can serve as a contemporary non-denominational prayer practice, by facilitating a personal connection with the larger transpersonal forces we can call cosmic or divine. This has been a key purpose of Greek choral dance since ancient times.
Circle dance in southeastern Europe most likely developed and spread along with agriculture in the early Neolithic era, and many circle dances surviving today have retained their original association with seasonal rituals and cycles of life. Often the dances embody an age-old worldview based on values of sustainability, community, and reverence for the earth. Because women are the most likely inventors of agriculture, as well as those most likely to do small-scale agricultural work, women's dances in particular express the original link between the fertility of nature and the fertility of the female. For contemporary women approaching Greek dance from other cultures, this life-giving power can be experienced in a metaphorical way: it is not necessary to work the fields or bear actual children in order to connect to the creative life force which is awakened in dancers by the dance. Circle dance supports women to develop their creativity, agency, and nurturing, and to express these qualities in their lives in other ways. Because the dances pre-date organised religion as we know it, women of any and all religious beliefs can feel at home, and find meaning in, the circle of the dance.
This paper draws on research and fieldwork which informed my Master's degree in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred, in the School of Childhood and Education Sciences at Canterbury Christ Church University in Canterbury, England.

[English text follows] L’histoire de l’enseignement de la danse en Grèce dans la première moitié du XXe siècle concerne surtout la danse libre et l’eurythmie, tout en intégrant des influences de la danse expressionniste allemande. Dans ce contexte, le compositeur Nikos Skalkottas (1904-1949) exécute plusieurs commandes de ballets dont les sujets et les arguments contribuent à l’expression de la grécité en son temps. Grâce à un projet de recherche du Conservatoire de Paris, une reconstitution partielle de la chorégraphie d’Yvonne de Chirico sur la musique du Chalutier et de la Danse des vagues de Skalkottas a pu se réaliser. La vidéo de cette chorégraphie constitue un rare témoignage pour la danse grecque dans les années quarante et nous permet une étude plus approfondie aussi bien sur le mouvement que sur l’interprétation pianistique de ces œuvres.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACuhKBuJklU 


The history of dance education in Greece during the first half of the 20th century revolves around free dance and eurhythmics, as well as it embraces influences from German expressionist dance. Within this context, composer Nikos Skalkottas executes several commissions for ballets, on subjects and plots contributing towards the expression of Greekness in his time. Thanks to a Conservatoire de Paris grant, it has been possible to reconstitute extracts from Yvonne de Chirico’s choreography on Skalkottas’s The Trawler and The Dance of the Waves. The resulting video is a rare testimony of Greek dance during the forties and it allows a more in depth study of both the quality of movement and the piano interpretation of those works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACuhKBuJklU

Traditionelle Musik aus Griechenland und Kleinasien Viele traditionelle griechische Tanzlieder enthalten kraftvolle Bilder und Symbole, die uns helfen können, die heilende und transformierende Kraft des Tanzkreises zu verstehen. Einige der wichtigsten Bilder aus den Songs auf unserer CD Limani sind unten beschrieben.

Der Tsámikos ist einer der ältesten und am weitesten verbreiteten Tänze in Griechenland, er wird getanzt in den Bergen und Ebenen des Festlandes und auf dem Peloponnes. In der Antike war dies das Gebiet, in dem der Kult des Dionysos blühte, und davor die Verehrung der Großen Mutter. Viele Aspekte dieser frühen Verehrung überleben noch heute in Elementen des Tsámikos, den ich hier in Bezug auf das Symbol des heiligen Dreiecks besprechen möchte.