Syrtos (Greek: Συρτός, also sirtos; plural syrtoi; sometimes called in English using the Greek accusative forms syrto and sirto; from the Greek: σύρω, syro, "drag [the dance]"), is the collective name of a group of Greek folk dances. Syrtos, along with its relative kalamatianos, are the most popular dances throughout Greece and are frequently danced by the Greek diaspora worldwide. They are very popular in social gatherings, weddings and religious festivals. Syrtos and kalamatianos use the same dance steps, but syrtos is in 4/4 time and the kalamatianos is in 7/8 time, organized in a slow (3 beat), quick (2 beat), quick (2 beat) rhythm.

Syrtos and kalamatianos are line dances, done with the dancers in a curving line holding hands, facing right. The dancer at the right end of the line is the leader. He may also be a solo performer, improvising showy twisting skillful moves as the rest of the line does the basic step. While he does this, the next dancer in line stops dancing and holds him up with a twisted handkerchief linking their hands, so he can turn and not fall down, as in the Antikristos. In some parts of syrtos, pairs of dancers hold a handkerchief from its two sides.

History[link]

Syrtos is mentioned as a Greek traditional dance already in ancient Greece^[1] and the word derives from the Greek verb "σύρω" (surō), "to draw, to drag".^[2] Kalamatianos, syrto-kalamatianos, syrtos Kefalonias, syrtos Makedonias, geragotikos syrtos, Cretan syrtos, syrtos Ikarias, syrtos koftos, Azizies syrto, syrtos Rodou etc. are some of the most popular syrtos dances. Syrtos is one of the most liked folk dances and music in Cyprus, too. The word syrtos also, has been borrowed as sirto for some dances from the Pirin region in Bulgaria. It is easy to also observe the syrtos used in Turkish music, like syrtos Ikoniou^{[citation needed]}, because Ottoman sultans enjoyed this Greek music form and composed songs in that form.^{[citation needed]}

Regional variation[link]

Each region, particularly the islands, have their own version of the dance.^[3] The common denominator is a chain of dancers, facing sideways and holding hands, moving to the dancer's right. The dancer at the right end of the line is the leader, who may lead intricate patterns while using a simple basic step. Sometimes the leader is connected to the second in line via a scarf or handkerchief. In other variants all dancers are connected via handkerchiefs.

Rennell Rodd (1892)^[4] suggests that the dance is an imitation of the action of drawing in the seine net. It is considered the most ancient form of dance. C. T. Dimaras ^[5] describes an inscription from the times of Caligula, which implied that already at these times Syrtos was considered an ancient Greek dance of local tradition.

Syrto-kalamatianos[link]

Kalamatianos syrtos and syrto-kalamatianos are the most popular Greek folkdance syrtoi in Greece, Cyprus and internationally. The steps of the Kalamatianos are the same as those of the Syrtos, but the latter is slower and more stately, its beat being an even 4/4. Traditionally, it was danced by segregated lines of men and women. The lead dancer usually holds the second dancer by a handkerchief.

[edit] Nisiotikoi syrtoi - Syrtoi from the Greek islands

Syrtoi from the islands orelse nisiotikoi, with the relative local Greek culture of the islands.

Nisiotikoi syrtoi include: Kalamatianos, Sousta, Syrtos from Ikaria, Pentozali, Pidikhtos, Rhoditikos, Syrtos from Symi, Skyrianos syrtos, Maleviziotikos, Samiotikos syrtos, Syrtos from Andros, Syrtos Chiotikos, Skopelitikos syrtos, Syrtos from Paros, Syrtos Kithnou, Syrtos Naxou, Zakynthinos syrtos, Syrto Rodou, a dance very widespread in Greek islands and other.

Syrtos Koftos[link]

Koftos is a Greek dance that is danced in the regions of Thessaly, Epirus and central Greece. The name of the dance comes from the cut in tune/music. It is a faster syrto sta dyo style fun dance. When the music stops the dancers yell "Hey". When the music stops you also can put your arms up, down, or clap. It can also be danced going backwards and forwards or with partners. "Koftos" in Greek means to cut and the music cuts periodically. This is how the name came about.

Cretan syrtos[link]

Kritikos syrtos means "syrtos from Crete." There are many variations to the dance; every village does it slightly differently. The choreography we use for performances has been developed for a specific piece of Cretan music. The movements of the Cretan Syrtos are calm, sober, and gentle. They constitute the respite before the battle, the resting of the soul, and calming of thoughts. The Syrtos is danced in a manner reminiscent of a religious ceremony that expresses the mystical aspects of life and death, passion and grief of the Cretan spirit.

Syrtos Chaniotikos[link]

The popular Syrtos Chaniotikos dance is danced to this song from the island of Crete. "The black clothes (of mourning) are as heavy as iron..."A religious dance where the dancer expresses himself with figures mostly on the ground rather than on the air. The region of Kissamos in Chania is considered by musicians and dancers as the source of the dance. We observe at the field researches that syrtos (as well as all Cretan dances) presents many variations from province to province and of course from prefecture to prefecture in Crete, a fact that brings out the richness of the music and dance tradition of Crete, but also the intense local expression of Cretans in all the aspects of their lives. We have recorded this dance at Kastelli of Kissamos in Chania.

Chortarakia (Syrtos Botaitikos)[link]

A syrtos from Arcadia, it has become a pan-Hellenic dance. The older, two-part syrtos botaitikos from Palaiopyrgos (formerly Bodias) can also be done to this music. This older form of the dance features men and women in two separate lines, the men behind the women. They merge into one line of mixed men and women and then back to the two lines, using the ancient chain hold that can be seen on ancient Greek vase paintings. The song tells of a young man meeting an old man and asking, "Where are the greens of the meadow, the water from the well?"

Politiko syrto[link]

Politiko syrto is from the area of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in Asia Minor. Constantinople was referred as "the city" (or "poli") because of its importance as a seat of culture and trade in the civilized world. Syrto (from the Greek word "syro" meaning to pull or, more accurately, to lead) is characterized by its slow-quick-quick rhythm within its 4/4 meter. There is also a similar dance, the Silivrianos Syrtos.

Syrto Kefallinias[link]

This dance is from the island of Kefallonia in the Ionian Sea. Although most of the Greek islands originally were under the control of the Ottoman Turks, Kefallonia was ruled by the Venetians for several centuries. Thus this dance has a springy, almost Italian quality.

Syrtos Dance From Bornova (Bournovalios Syrtos)[link]

This is danced to a song entitled Ti Tha Yino, Ego Me Sena ("What Shall I Become, I with You?"), the story of an erstwhile courtship:

What am I to do with you Panayiotis? You’ve stolen my heart and youth. For three years now you’ve enslaved me and you’vetormented me, but I’ve got your game now, you liar, and know that you’ve no feelings for me. You come to my neighborhood to chat with me, and you come and go in my house and laugh behind everyone’s back. But you must know that my mother will not be ashamed to tell you that you’re a liar and a scoundrel. You better leave before she sees you, and face it, she’ll kick you out, Panayiotis. Then she’ll marry me off to someone else, and I’ll be freed from you, Panayiotis.

Syrtos Sinkathistos[link]

Circle pidikhtos dance, with the steps of simple "syrtos" and the squat-steps of "sygkathistos", a syrtos dance widespread in Thessaly and Thrace.

Syrtos Makedonias[link]

Syrtos of Makedonia, is another one form of syrtos, danced in the region of Makedonia.

Syrtos Pileas[link]

This dance is from a village in Macedonia called Pyleas. This is another dance Anna Efstathiou taught in February 1983. We call one of the variations "arm aloft," as dancers raise their arms rhythmically over their heads and back down again.

Syrto Bafra[link]

Also known as Omali, in the Kerasounta/Giresun region, this dance is called syrto, karshilidiko omal, lakhana (after the name of the song, which means cabbage), kerasountaiko or kotsikton kmal, widespread in Asia minor. It is a 9/8 rhythm and bears no resemblance to what we usually call syrto, which is usually either a 7/8 kalamatianos or 8/8 rhythm. In this case, the name most likely refers to the style, what we call dragging dances.

Pomasko Syrtos/Kalamatianos[link]

This is a dance of the Muslim Pomaks of the Balkans.The first part is identical to the Greek Kalamatianos. Time 7/8, slow quick quick (SQQ), 3 + 2 + 2.

Other Syrtoi[link]

Syrtos Tsirighetikos: This dance originated in the city of Chania in western Crete and is thus known on Crete as Chaniotikos.

Other Cretan syrtoi include the dances of Kolympari, Selino, Mesogea, Pervolia, Rethymniotikos, Anogeia, Syrto Rodinou, Sytros Thrakis, Prevezianikos Syrtos and Syrtos Mesogitikos.

See also[link]

• Music of Greece
• Greek dances
• Kalamatianos
• Tsamiko
• Sirtaki
• Omal
• Horon

References[link]

1. ^ συρτός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
2. ^ σύρω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
3. ^ Rickey Holden, Mary Vouras (1965) "Greek Folk Dances", p. 84
4. ^ Rennell Rodd (1892) "The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece", p.88
5. ^ C. T. Dimaras (1972) "History of Modern Greek Literature", ISBN 0-87395-071-2, p. 7

External links[link]

• http://paroutsas.jmc.gr/dances/index.htm
• http://www.dunav.org.il/dances/bulgaria/sirto.html
• http://www.dunav.org.il/dances/greece/syrto_bafra_omali.html
• http://www.greekfolkmusicanddance.com/bookdance.php

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Domna Samiou (Greek: Δόμνα Σαμίου; 12 October 1928 – 10 March 2012^[1]) was a prominent Greek researcher and performer of Greek folk music. She received her first formal musical training from Simon Karas. For over half a century she has been collecting, recording and performing all over the world the traditional songs of Greece (demotika), appealing not only to the Greek diaspora, but also introducing non-Greek audiences to traditional Greek folk music.

Biography[link]

Born in the poor district of Kaisariani, Athens in 1928 (one of many neighbourhoods established with the influx of Greek refugees from Turkey in 1922), Samiou was the daughter of Greek refugees from the village Bayındır near Smyrna in Asia Minor.^[2] Her mother fled to Greece in 1922, whilst her father, who was a prisoner of war, arrived slightly later during the exchange of populations. During her childhood years she lived the harsh life of a refugee, but was also surrounded with the humane solidarity of the refugee communities. It was there that she acquired her deep connection with popular culture and her love for folk music.

At the age of thirteen, whilst attending night school, Domna Samiou received her first formal musical training from Simon Karas at the Association for the Dissemination of National Music, where she was tutored in Byzantine and folk music, as well as being introduced to the idea of field research in music. Her first professional collaboration was with the National Radio Foundation (E.I.R.), the state-run national radio station of Greece at the time, when she was a member of the Simon Karas choir. In 1954 she became a full-time employee of the station, working in the National Music Section, in effect the folk music section of E.I.R.. Through her work there, she came into contact with the leading traditional musicians of the day, who were part of a great wave of migration from the countryside to Athens. The National Music Section was busy recording them and, as a result, Domna became acquainted with all their various local musical styles. She was herself responsible for supervising records, stage plays and films.

In 1963 Domna Samiou started touring the countryside independently, to record music for the archive she was establishing. Then, in 1971, she left her radio job entirely to focus on her own musical career, accepting an invitation by the composer and performer Dionyssis Savvopoulos to sing at a club called Rodeo, frequented by a youthful anti-junta audience. It marked the beginning of Domna Samiou's impact and influence on generations of young people in Greece. Soon after, she performed at the Bach Festival in London, run at the time by Lila Lalandi. It was a triumphant start to a brilliant musical career: “It made people overcome the embarrassment they felt for folk music”, as she herself stated later.

In 1974, she started her collaboration with Columbia Records, which resulted in a number of LPs over the next years. In 1976-77, together with film directors Fotos Lambrinos and Andreas Thomopoulos, she toured the Greek countryside and produced twenty episodes of 'Musiko Odiporiko' ('Musical Travelogue') on Greek national television (ERT).

In 1981, the Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association was founded to preserve and promote Greek traditional music and facilitate the production of records and musical events to the highest standards, free from the demands of commercial record companies. Within Greece, Domna Samiou’s performances and appearances have been innumerable. She collaborated with renowned Greek and foreign musicians, musicologists, anthropologists and ethnomusicologists; from 1994 to 2004, she taught traditional folk singing at the Museum of Popular Musical Instruments of Athens; she also initiated, taught, and promoted many young musicians, and actively and selflessly undertook numerous initiatives to improve musical education in primary schooling, which she considers of vital importance. Tributes to her work have been numerous and honours and prizes abundant. In October 1998, a concert was held at the Athens Concert Hall – Domna Samiou at the Megaron Mousikis: the known and the unknown Domna – to celebrate her seventieth birthday. And in 2005, the President of Greece, K. Stefanopoulos, awarded her a medal of honour.

But Domna Samiou's work reaches way beyond the borders of Greece. For forty years, she performed all over the world, in places as distant as Australia and South America, appealing not only to the Greek diaspora, but also introducing non-Greek audiences to “Greek music with no Bouzouki”, as one critic in Sweden put it. Her records have been produced under Swedish and French labels. At the time of her death, she was involved in producing a thematic series of CDs, accompanied by extensive informative booklets on the contents. She was also organising her personal archive and was preparing to make it available on the Internet.

She died on March 10, 2012, following a short illness.^[1]

Selected works[link]

Musical editions[link]

Published by Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association.

• Folk fables in song (2008).
• I tread the earth gently (2008).
• Songs of history and heroes (2007).
• The Great North Wind and other traditional songs for children (2007).
• Of nature and of love (2006).
• The Akolouthia Of Nymphios (2002).
• Songs of Dame Sea (2002).
• Domna Samiou at Megaron, The Athens Concert Hall (1999).
• Easter Songs (1998).
• Kaneloriza (1995).
• Carnival Songs (1994).
• Songs about Greeks far from home (1992, produced by UNHCR).
• Songs of Asia Minor (1991).

The archive material[link]

Domna Samiou systematically recorded folk songs from every part of Greece. The material, constituting the Domna Samiou Archive, belongs to the 'Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association', and includes around 2.500 songs from villages, settlements and towns of the Greek territory. These recordings, both on analogue tapes and cassettes, were loaned to the Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri”, in order to be digitised. Most of the people who participated in these recordings are no longer alive, a fact that gives the recordings a special significance and unique value. Through this archive material, the manners and customs, as well as the music tradition of Greece remain alive. The Association is preparing this material to make it available on the Internet.

References[link]

General

TO VIMA newspaper (1998): Interview (in Greek)

Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri”

Specific

External links[link]

• Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association's website