History

Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 Dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

 in Antiquity

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

 was originally held to have some kind of educational value, as evidenced in Plato's

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

 dialogues on this point in The Laws. However, as Greek culture

Culture of Greece

The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern successor the Byzantine Empire...

 gradually conquered Rome, dancing lost most of its educational value and was simply used as a method of entertainment

Entertainment

Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...

, this coincided with the perception that being a dancer was not a particularly admirable job to have, and that its performers were generally of low social status.

The influence of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 too, in the Greek

Greek East

"Greek East" and "Latin West" are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the lingua franca, and the western parts where Latin filled this role...

 continuation of the Roman Empire in the east

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

, sought to ban dance and condemned it for its pagan origins, however as The Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 gradually began to realise that concessions had to be made to those vast number of Greeks who had converted from Paganism

Paganism

Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....

 to Christianity, and began to render dance acceptable, thus the church fathers found ways to 'baptize' dance by refining and spiritualizing it, just as they had found ways to give a Christian interpretation to pre-Christian myths and symbols. These points highlight an overall principle concerning the History of Greek dancing, emphasizing the continuity between not only Classical and Byzantine times, but also the connection between Byzantine dance and modern Greek dance, following the adoption of many Byzantine traits and customs by the Ottomans

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

.

Types of dance

The dances that won the approval of the church fathers were group dances, typically processions or circles in which men, separated from women, performed solemn decorous movements in the fear of God. However, the information on dancing at this period is very scarce. Actually, since the Byzantine art

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

 is mainly ecclesiastical, the references to dance are rare. Some images from the Byzantine and meta-Byzantine dances have been saved on sculptures, miniatures, manuscripts but mainly church murals in between religious subjects.

In his book Life and Culture of the Byzantines, Phaidon Koukoules has assembled all known references to dance in texts of that time. From his writings, we learn that there were women's dances on Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

, nocturnal satirical dances in disguise on the Kalends

Kalends

The Calends , correspond to the first days of each month of the Roman calendar. The Romans assigned these calends to the first day of the month, signifying the start of the new moon cycle...

, dances by itinerant bands of young men on the Roussalia. There were certainly dances at weddings, in taverns and in banquets. The wealthy invited professional harpists and youths and maidens to dance, being especially appreciated for their bodily agility and deft footwork. Dance spectacles staged in the theater in the accompaniment of flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

 and quitar are also mentioned.
In Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, important events were celebrated with large public dances. On the return of the victorious Byzantine army

Byzantine army

The Byzantine army was the primary military body of the Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct descendant of the Roman army, the Byzantine army maintained a similar level of discipline, strategic prowess and organization...

, for instance, the citizens thronged the streets, danced with the soldiers and shouted in jubilation. There are instances recorded of people dancing inside the church, on Easter and Christmas, after Patriarch Theophylactos had granted his permission. Other times they danced and sang extemporized songs, making fun of the emperor. The soldiers danced as part of their drill and danced after maneuvers for amusement. The charioteers danced in the Hippodrome

Hippodrome

A hippodrome was a Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words "hippos and "dromos"...

 when they won their races and, the sailors danced an unmanly dance, full of twists and turns, as if imitating the spirals of the labyrinth.

Though we have so few descriptions of Byzantine dances, we know that they were often 'intertwined'. The leader of the dance was called the koryphaios (κορυφαίος) or chorolektes (χορολέκτης) and it was he who began the song and made sure that the circle was maintained. Efstathios of Thessaloniki mentions a dance which commenced in a circle and ended with the dancers facing one another. When not dancing in a circle the dancers held their hands high or waved them to left and right. They held cymbal

Cymbal

Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...

s (very like the zilia of today) or a kerchief

Kerchief

A kerchief is a triangular or square piece of cloth tied around the head or around the neck for protective or decorative purposes...

 in their hands and their movements were emphasized by their long sleeves. As they danced, they sang

Byzantine music

Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek system...

, either set songs or extemporized ones, sometimes in unison, sometimes in refrain, repeating the verse sung by the lead dancer. The onlookers joined in, clapping the rhythm or singing. Professional singers, often the musicians themselves, composed lyrics to suit the occasion.

Popular Dances

Popular dances of this period were:

• Syrtos
  Syrtos
  Syrtos , 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...
  
   (Συρτός; literally "dragged dance")
• Geranos
  Hyporchema
  The hyporchema was a lively kind of mimic dance which accompanied the songs used in the worship of Apollo, especially among the Dorians. It was performed by men and women...
  
   (Γερανός or Αγέρανος "circle dance
  Circle dance
  "Circle dance" is the most common name for a style of traditional dance usually done in a circle without partners to musical accompaniment.-Description:...
  
  ")
• Mantilia (Μαντίλια or Μαντήλια "kerchiefs")
• Saximos (Σάξιμος)
• Pyrrichios (Πυρρίχιος or Πυρρίχη "war dance
  War dance
  A war dance is a dance involving mock combat, usually in reference to tribal warrior societies where such dances were performed as a ritual connected with endemic warfare....
  
  ")
• Kordakas
  Cordax
  The cordax , was a provocative, licentious, and often obscene mask dance of ancient Greek comedy. In his play the The Clouds, Aristophanes complains that other playwrights of his time try to hide the feebleness of their plays by bringing an old woman onto the stage to dance the cordax...
  
   (Κόρδακας or Κόρδαξ "indecent dance")

Court dances

At the height of the Empire, Court life "passed in a sort of ballet", with precise ceremonies prescribed for every occasion, to show that "Imperial power could be exercised in harmony and order", and "the Empire could thus reflect the motion of the Universe as it was made by the Creator", according to the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who wrote a Book of Ceremonies describing in enormous detail the annual round of the Court. Special forms of dress for many classes of people on particular occasions are set down; at the name-day dinner for the Emperor or Empress various groups of officials performed ceremonial "dances", one group wearing " a blue and white garment, with short sleeves, and gold bands, and rings on their ankles. In their hands they hold what are called phengia". The second group do just the same, but wearing "a garment of green and red, split, with gold bands". These colours were the marks of the old chariot-racing factions, the four now merged to just the Blues and the Greens, and incorporated into the official hierarchy. Runciman imagines that these dances by high officials must have been more like a restrained "stylized walk", but enamel plaques on a crown sent by the Emperor to Hungary in about 1050 (National Museum, Budapest) show women, unlikely to be lower-class, dancing with their hands over their head and one leg pulled back shaply behind them. They are waving long strips of fabric above their heads like skipping-ropes.

Instruments

Byzantine instruments included the:

• Guitar
• Single, double, or multiple flute
• Sistrum (Σείστρον "tambourine, instrument with bells")
• Timpani (Τυμπάνι "drum")
• Psaltirio (Ψαλτήρι(ο)ν "psalter
  Psalter
  A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...
  
  ")
• Lyre (Λύρα)
• Keras (Κέρας "horn (musical)")
• Kanonaki (Κανονάκι)

Sources

• Life and Culture of the Byzantines, Phaidon Koukoules.
• Medieval Byzantine Dance in Sacred and Secular Places, Archaelogia and Techne (March 2004).
• Steven Runciman, Byzantine Style and Civilization, 1975, Penguin

• Efthalia Rentetzi, L'iconografia della danza nell'arte bizantina in "Venezia Arti e Storia. Studi in onore di Renato Polacco", (Ateneo Veneto 2005), pp. 173–179.

See also

• Greek dances
  Greek dances
  Greek dance is a very old tradition, being referred to by authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian. There are different styles and interpretations from all of the islands and surrounding mainland areas. Each region formed its own choreography and style to fit in with their own ways...