Saturday Night Fever

A couple Sundays ago, Kathleen and I passed Syngrou Park and saw a small group of folks in the park working on some traditional Greek dances.   I had one of those wonderful conversations with some older (even older than us) folks who fortunately passed us on the street who seemingly spoke no English (if they had, I suspect they would have used it, because every Greek I've met who speaks any English at all has chosen to have fun practicing their English, even in the rare cases in which my Greek is better than their English!--LOL).  They explained that the dancing happened every Saturday and Sunday at 5:00.  So on the following Saturday, Kathleen and I walked over at about 4:50.  There was already dancing going on, but this was a group of youngsters.  The two dances we saw them do were simple enough that we both felt like we could quickly learn to do them.

We watched until the 5:00 group of adults started, at which point I asked the instructor if it was open to all.  He was very patient with my clumsy Greek, and seemed pained to have to tell me that they were not an open group, but were preparing a performance for March 25, which (someone had told us just a couple days earlier) marks the start of the long revolutionary war against the Turks in 1821 that led to independence for Greece.  March 25 is also Annunciation Day--so, it's a big day for Greeks, with (we assume and hope) lots of performances, music, dancing.  We'll find out.

Anyway, we watched for almost an hour and took some videos.  It was great fun, only dampened by the fact that we couldn't jump in with our two left feet (each, that is).

Kathleen's additions to Ken's blog:  Here's a simple "grapevine" step--it's common in a lot of folk dances

 
 And here's a slightly more complicated dance.  The instructor is in it too, giving some directions.

And finally, this one includes men.  Note that the men and women dance in different lines (there are two circles painted on the stones--the men dance in the smaller, inner circle and the women dance in the outer circle) and in most cases, do not touch.  Perhaps that is a hold-over from of the years Greece spent as part of the Ottoman empire.  Modern-day devout Muslims and orthodox Jews have the same rules--adult men and women do not touch unless they are closely related.  Of course, for modern Greeks, that custom is not carried out in ordinary settings--it's just in the traditional dances.  That's one reason the women are holding handkerchiefs.  Though we didn't see them doing it, apparently there are times that men and women dance together holding the opposite ends.

Here's a clip of the instructor showing them a more complicated step.  Ken and I are fairly good dancers, but we found it very hard to find the beat.  For one thing, our time signature is usually based on 8 beats.  Ken's baglama lessons started with 9!  Rather than coming in on what we would consider the beat, they come in on what appears to be a hesitation between beats. Messes with our minds, let me tell ya'!

Ken's last word (re. the clarinet): At the museum where I take the baglama lessons, there are several examples of old oboe-like and clarinet-like instruments, but with far fewer holes that are covered directly by the fingers instead of by keys on levers.  The museum mentions that clarinets as we now know them are a fairly recent addition to the Greek instrument palette (in the last hundred-fifty years, if I remember correctly).  The interesting thing that I read was that, to get the microtones (the in-between notes) that is a part of the musical heritage here, the players developed a method of fingering that is completely different than what we're used to.  Having played clarinet, about the only thing I can imagine that refers to is that they perhaps used the one key that I remember that created sort of a sliding sound as you opened and closed it.  Maybe someone knows something more about this.  I'm curious.