April 29th is a day dedicated to dance. A day existing to remind us that “everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”
Dance is an art form which demands at the same time physical, mental and emotional activation. It swings between the search of the ultimate external perfection and the spontaneous natural expression. Dance’s beauty lies exactly in the paradox created by the coexistence of objective difficulty that exists for the accomplishment of one and only movement and of the seemingly easy and natural result, which is eventually presented to others. Things that might be considered practically impossible by the human body, are defined at the same time differently, as if humans were born favored to twist like that.
Dancers suggest that they start dancing when the words are not yet enough to convey whatever they want to say. However today we ask them to write what they think and feel and not dance them away; to describe their choreographed movements and not show them; to descend the stage and explain to us, written in words, what they’re doing there. And the ultimate aim of all these is to drag even those that say “I don’t dance” up to the stage with them…
“The kind of dance we are doing is partner competitive Latin and it contains 5 dances (Cha-Cha-Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Jive), each one with its own characteristics, based on the homeland of Latin America and tailored to the European culture. The common feature of Latin dances is the remarkable motion of the pelvis, which is a resemblance of libido’s enactment and expression. Generally, we would say that it is a kind of dance that constitutes a miniature of the two sexes’ relationship. In our experience we can say that anyone could build a versatile character through Latin dances, since the kind of interaction between the dancing couple grows respect, mutual understanding, cooperation, patience and discipline. Personally, we feel that both teaching and performing has helped us a lot in the field of sociability and the way of communicating emotions. Our characteristic is actually that, when dancing, we love to share with the audience the story we want to tell in that specific moment.. Dance for us is “emotion through motion” and not the other way round.”
Rania Koliou- Spiros Pavlidis, Professional Latin Dancers/Teachers/Choreographers
“The kind of dance I am engaging in is ballet. This specific type has technique as its main feature and is strongly connected with discipline and the general art education. Ballet definitely has many responsibilities and it has a specific syllabus, which each dancer has to study both in theory and to live it in their body, so as to get to a good point. Moreover, it is a unique exercise for the body, as everything is trained simultaneously, while it extremely sharpens the mind. There are also scientific researches confirming that ballet dancers, due to the combinations they study and have to learn, train their brain to such an extent that they have less chances to be diagnosed with dementia. Personally, I believe that ballet helped me a lot to the way I think. It enriched me with the “arete” of discipline; from simple timekeeping to the ultimate concentration on everything I do whatever my emotional state. Furthermore, despite the anxiety the professional development in the field caused, I learnt to cope with situations that could arise throughout all life.”
Konstantina Stergiaki, Ballet Dancer and Teacher
“It is a great honor for me to represent the belly dance or more aptly oriental dances, because numerous types of dances define Oriental Dance. Oriental’s distinctive features are about the beatification of femininity, as the fluid and plastic gestures of the female body are attuned to the sharp and intense ones, that are compared to the beating of percussion instruments. In ancient times Oriental was considered a sacred dance due to its property to boost fertility and protect the female reproductive organs. So, it is a highly mental and historical dance, though misunderstood enough in Greece due to its invalid connections to patriarchy. Personally, I wouldn’t exaggerate to say that this occupation and a little later my professional identification with this kind of dance saved me, because it showed me resorts and ways of expression which were undeveloped until that time inside me. Every beginning of a new Oriental choreography is for me a procedure of processing and conversion to energy of all the bottomless emotions and concerns inside me, which would lose their meaning if expressed with words; it is Psychotherapy and Renaissance on a daily basis.”
Althea, International Choreographer & Fusion Oriental dancer
”The term ‘performing’ is used by several arts fields; I will refer to the field of dance. Performing is a more general term, a sum of traits and skills a dancer obtains having tried different kind of dances. This enables us to cope with different projects on various subject matters, asked at any time. In the course of time I have tried several types of dances, with classical ballet and contemporary as a basis. The stimuli and the skills I obtained by the other types helped me to evolve and secure a performer job in Paris. It is a daily challenge, since you have to carry through with many and different types of dances, even unknown ones. Thus, you are continually standing by and on the alert. At the same time, you learn how to respect something new and evaluate the folkway and the different culture. There are several skills that are sharpened daily, like auditory perception and coordination skills. Nonverbal communication and the deeper feeling conveyed while you perform are very important, too. All of the above have improved far less the quality of my life physically, socially and mentally.”
Athina Ioanna Berkaki, Dance Teacher and Performer
We thank from the bottom of our hearts those that willingly participated in writing the present article!
Photography by Simeon Maniatis