DANCE

1. By
Lytridou Soultana

2. Dance has always played an
important role in the life of a
Greek. It is an expression of
human feelings and everyday
life. The Greeks danced at
religious festivals,
ceremonies; they danced to
ensure fertility; to prepare for
war and to celebrate victories;
they danced at weddings; to
overcome depression and to
cure physical illness. Almost
every dance has a story to tell.
Dance was regarded as one of
the highest forms of art.
INTRODUCTION
“ The dance, of all the arts, is the one
that most influences the soul.
Dancing is divine in its nature and is
the gift of the gods.” Plato

3. The Pyrrhic, or
weapon dance (a
form of mock
combat) taken
from Crete and
perfected in
Sparta, was the
ideal.
Plato and his
mentor Socrates
said that every
educated man
should know how
to dance gracefully
by which he meant
the manly
exercises that kept
the body strong
and ready to do its
duty on the
battlefield

5. Traditional dance continues to be passed from
generation to generation, which in turns maintains
national identity. Folklore is the term used for
traditional dance when performed out of its traditional
social context. The principal characteristic of folklore
dance is that it is not transmitted in a traditional
manner but by a process involving dance teachers and
gym instructors.

8. Greece has 6 mainland
regions: Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, Thessaly, Cent
ral Greece and Peloponnesus.
REGIONAL
CHRACTERISTICS

9. The Greek islands fall into the
following categories.
The Ionian islands between
Greece and Italy
the Saronic islands near
Athens, Cyclades occupying the
central Aegean Sea, the North
Aegean islands close to the
West coast of Turkey,
the Dodecanese islands,
occupying the southeast of the
Aegean, between Crete and
Turkey, the Sporades which are
a small cluster of islands near
the island of Euboea,
and Crete, the largest island
which lies in the southern part of
the Aegean Sea.
Although Cyprus is an
independent country, it is
however the largest island
inhabited by Greeks and falls
within the Greek major cultural
regions.
THE GREEK
ISLANDS

10. Asia Minor which is separated
from Europe by the Bosporus,
the Sea of Marmara (Propondis)
and the Aegean Sea was
previously inhabited by
Greeks since ancient times
but the majority have found
refuge in Greece following the
Asia Minor Disaster and the
burning of Smyrni in 1922,
Generally, Asia Minor dances are
divided into four
groups; Pontus, Cappadocia,
the Coastal Regions and the
urban centres
of Constantinople and
Smyrna.
ASIA MINOR

13. Ο Χορευτικός Όμιλος Θεσσαλονίκης
ιδρύθηκε το Δεκέμβριο του 1990. Στόχος
του είναι η έρευνα του ελληνικού
παραδοσιακού πολιτισμού, η διατήρηση
και διάδοση της ελληνικής παράδοσης
μέσω των χορών και των τραγουδιών της
κάθε περιοχής της Ελλάδας. Έδρα του
Χ.Ο.Θ. είναι η Καλαμαριά

14. CAPPADOCIA
MACEDONIA
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