The Dance Festival

Dance Is Life—and Life Is Dance

There is surely nothing more emblematic of the unbridled joy of Greek life than dance. So it is with some sadness at departure, but greater joy in the certain knowledge of returning, that Temenos 2015 concludes with the annual Finikounda dance festival. Held on Saturday evening in the village amphitheater, on the edge of the fishing harbor, people come from the many villages miles around to celebrate, to bask in a shared heritage…and to simply have fun.

The dancers, the sons and daughters of this proud village, basking in the unique movement and garb of rural Greece, expertly performed these complex dances, which represent the islands, the mainland, northern Epirus and Macedonia, and—of course—the Peloponnese.  This is not a show of ossified tradition; rather it is a living thing, a part of the Greek continuum to which this blog is partly dedicated.

Included here is a small sampling of photos and videos, including the concluding dances,which brought the audience on stage with the dancers. Your correspondent, with his three right feet, was duly conscripted into the dance circle. Wine, cheese, and sweets were served by women carrying baskets and the salutation (chronia polla, “many years!”) was repeated again and again.

The dance includes the very young and the old. The joy on people’s faces must be seen up close to be fully appreciated.

Greece may have lost much of itself since becoming part of Europe in the early 1980s. And the crisis of the last six years, ongoing and unresolved, has sapped some of the spirit of this proud nation of 10 million souls—but it has hardly extinguished the pride of place, the self-awareness, the historical and cultural legacy, the richness of language, foodways, and long-held skills of survival. There will always be an elemental Greekness, a quality that sets this land apart from the rest of the world.

Opa!!