Lyra
Orpheus Hellenic Folklore Society NewsletterSummer 1999
Orpheus Youth Group Debuts at Skokie Festival of Cultures! | ||
Orpheus Youth Group Branch in Glenview! | ||
Teaching Folk Dance | ||
Metsovo Society Dinner Dance | ||
Lyra Has A New Look | ||
Orpheus Debuts in Michigan | ||
OHFS Anecdotes | ||
Spotlight on Orpheus Dancer | ||
Personals | ||
Orpheus Youth Group Debuts at Skokie Festival of Cultures! | ||
The Orpheus Hellenic Society is moving forward into the future with the growing presence of its Orpheus Youth Group! The first group of young Greek dancers made their debut at the Skokie Festival of Cultures on a warm and sunny Saturday, May 22, and demonstrated remarkable poise and youthful spirit in their first public dance performance! | ||
There was much excitement in the dressing rooms as the youth dancers donned their costumes and were assisted by veteran members of the OHFS. "I'm so nervous, but excited, too!" confessed Genevieve Theodorakis with a smile as she tucked her hair into the hat of her Gida costume. Across the hall from the girls, the guys were proudly showing off their new Epirotan costumes (handmade by Mrs. Dina Sianis) while they practices Tsamiko kicks and other figoures (variations). | ||
As Orpheus youth instructors Christina Pagones and Alexander Kapotas cheered them on from the sidelines, the young dancers performed a series of dances from mainland Greece, including Tsourapia and Bella Olympio from Macedonia. The young men also performed the popular Tsamikos while the girls took their turn with Dimitroula, a Macedonian dance usually performed by women. | ||
The youth group joined the Orpheus Dance Troupe for the last dance, Zonarathikos, and it was heartwarming to see the mix of youth and adult dancers carrying on the folk traditions of their Hellenic heritage. "The formation of the Orpheus Youth Group is vital to the perpetuation and preservation of our folk culture and traditions," commented Yannis Economou, OHFS director. "We must expose our young people to elements of our Greek culture to strengthen our community and take it into the future generation." Added youth instructor Christina Pagones, "the youth group has shown such enthusiasm from the very first dance lesson, and I'm so proud to see them performing today! They did a great job, and we're looking forward to the summer session and the addition of many new students next year!" | ||
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Orpheus Youth Group Branch in Glenview! | ||
The Orpheus Hellenic Folklore Society is pleased to announce the expansion of its Youth Group program with the establishment of a second branch in Glenview, Illinois. The new branch will be launched during the upcoming fall season and classes will be held every Saturday, 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm, at the multipurpose room of the New Church, 74 Park Drive in Glenview. The new and spacious facility is located one block west of the intersection of Glenview and Shermer Roads. Classes will start on Saturday, September 18, 1999 and will conclude on May 27, 2000. A total of 32 dance sessions have been tentatively scheduled during this period. | ||
The North Shore branch was established in response to an increased demand by residents of the surrounding areas who were unable to commute to the city. This will provide the opportunity for many more young Greek Americans to become part of the OHFS family and enjoy the high quality instruction of Greek folk dances, history and tradition in a friendly ad organized environment. The Chicago branch will continue its operation at its current location at River Park, where classes are held every Thursday from 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm. The OHFS is very excited about this new opportunity to reach an even larger part of the community. Come join us! For registration information, schedules and fees, please call (847) 251-0856 or contact us at www.ohfs.org. | ||
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Teaching Folk Dance | ||
Let us first admit from the start that many people do not consider "folk dance" as a serious or even worthwhile endeavor. There are elements in modern society that consider folk dance "primitive," having been created by and for the "peasants," and not worthy of the allocation of scarce resources. Some of the reasons are that folk dance did not originate in the theater and its purpose was not to entertain an audience but rather to serve a set of functions within a rural society of the past. Many modern urbanites seem to believe that the fact it served a rural society exempts folk dances from being able to serve them in any meaningful manner. In addition, the quality of a majority of folk dance performances compared to other theatrical dance presentations is considered by many today as substandard. | ||
The practice of dancing the folk dances of a past culture must also serve some purpose for those in the present if they are to perpetuate these dances. The three main functions of folk dance in the village are social interaction as part of the structured life of the villager, enjoyment leading to dance ecstasy, and catharsis. | ||
To enable the preservation of Greek folk dance and culture, it must serve a function for the modern-day participants of the dance as well. Folk dance serves a similar function in urban society as it has done, and sometimes still does, in the village for both Greek urbanites as well as Greek immigrants in their dinner dances and festivals as social interaction and as a means of bringing their Greek youth together in a Hellenic setting to meet each other. Young people's opportunities in the village before the turn of the century to meet other youth and make choices about potential mates were concentrated at the village festival. But living in an urban environment or the Diaspora, Greek youth have other opportunities to meet young people within ad without their own ethnicity. | ||
The physical enjoyment of moving to beautiful music is still served, but the functions of dance ecstasy and catharsis seem to be weakly served and could be enhanced if people learned to express themselves freely in the dance. Those who have learned the dance in their own village setting over a prolonged period of time naturally absorbed the step, style and context of the dance. The rest of us are at a severe disadvantage. | ||
The two main components necessary to teaching folk dance, in general, are steps and style. A third component important to understanding folk dance is the context: who created the dance, on what occasion is the dance done, what customs and traditions surround the occasion of the dance? In addition, dance groups come face-to-face with one of the most irascible questions in folk dance that tends to cloud and strain the impetus to teach context, the question of authenticity versus entertainment value. Most dance groups aspire both to entertain and preserve culture with their performances. How much "artistic license" should be used to change the dances to overcome the monotony that an uninitiated audience experiences when it observes folk dance; dances that in the village context are danced for hours and have the purpose of creating hypnotic, cathartic and socializing functions for villagers that the audience cannot possibly experience if they are not part of the "event"? | ||
I believe Professor Alkis Raftis (1992) has expressed his yearning for a higher quality of (folk dance) performance vehicle in this way: | ||
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Evangelia and Elias Pagones have a new baby sister! 8 lbs. 2 oz. Kyriaki Ioanna was born on May 23rd to Andy and Mary Pagones. Congratulations! Na sas zisi! |
Orpheus member Joan Kakos will wed Nick Christofer on Sunday, July 11th. Joan, a member of Orpheus for many years, will be moving to California where Nick is finishing law school. Best wishes to them both! |
Alexander Kapotas will be joining the Orthodox Christian Mission Center's team to Guatemala City this summer. The team will be doing outreach to the 150+ orphans at the Orthodox Christian orphanage, as well as structure repairs. |
Dr. Angie Beltsos proudly announces a scholarship endowment which has been initiated in her parents' name. The Nicholas J. and Katherine Beltsos Scholarship will be awarded to any Eastern Michigan University student of Hellenic heritage and is renewable every year. If any student is interested in attending EMU, please inquire about this exciting opportunity with the school. |
Antonis Giannopoulos was selected to attend a 3-week liberal arts study program this summer at the University of Rethymno, Crete. This program, which is open to all high school students of Hellenic descent worldwide, is sponsored by the Greek government, which selects the students on the basis of scholarship and character. Good luck Antonis -- make us proud! |
New jobs: Congratulations to Harilaos Georgakopoulos on his new position with Motorola. Kiki Kakavas will be joining Cook County Hospital, and Christina Rigas will be working at Thresholds, a psychiatric rehabilitation center. Best of luck! |
Namesday greetings: Patty Panagakis, Peter Panagakis, Patty Pappas, Marianna Gudmundsson, Marianna Kaltsa, Sherry Dagrizikos, and Maria Seretis on August 15th; Alexander Kapotas on August 30th; Voula Drougas on September 14th; Sophia Sianis and Sophia Tsipianitis on September 17th. |
Birthday wishes: Jim Thanopoulos on July 3rd, Kathy Tomaras on July 14th; Christina Kakavas on August 15th; Melpo Katsaros on August 21st, Peter Panagakis on September 2nd and Alexander Kapotas on September 29th. |
New members who have joined the ranks of OHFS this year: Ioanna Antonopoulos, Athanasios Arvanitis, Emmanuel Bistas, Eftychia Gouvas, Marianna Kaltsa, Stavroula Kardasis, Frank Kopanis, Athanasia Kyriakakos, Eleni Makris, Demetra Moustakis, Larissa Rolley, Betina Roussos, and Noreen Yonkoff. New Youth Group members include: Colleen Kelly, Emma Keenan, Eleni Press, and Sarah Press. Welcome to our family and good luck! |