THE TRADITIONAL DANCES OF CRETE

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THE TRADITIONAL DANCES OF CRETE

• About twenty traditional dances are included in
  the living heritage of dance in Crete.  Of these,
  today, some are widely danced all over Crete, and
  others are purely local.  In the first category
  we have the sousta of Rethymno, the siganos,
  the maleviziotis or kastrinos pidichtos, the
  Chaniotikos syrtos and the pentozali.  It
  should be noted, however, that these dances too,
  prior to 1930, used to be confined to certain
  regions.  To be more precise, the sousta of
  Rethymno was known in the county of the same
  name, the maleviziotis in the county of
  Heraclion, and the Chaniotikos syrtos and the
  Pentozali in the county of Chania.

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•          
•    The sousta of Rethymno, the love dance of
  Crete, which is danced by one or more couples
  facing each other, contains numerous elements of
  the ancient pyrrichios. The basic steps of the
  dance, which resemble small jumps and make the
  dancers bodies move as if propelled by springs,
  were probably the reason that the dance, during
  the Venetian occupation (1204-1669) was given the
  name sousta, from the Italian word susta
  which means spring or coil.
•            
•             The contemporary Cretan syrtos,
  generally known as Chaniotikos syrtos, is said
  to have evolved, possibly through the
  transformation of the steps of an older syrtos
  dance, in the mid-18th century in the province of
  Kissamos, Chania. We should note that the dance
  was also used, according to ancient customs, as a
  necessary means of expression and encouragement
  in cases of war.  Tradition says that the music
  accompanying the Chaniotikos syrtos is based on
  two melodies, which had been composed, in keeping
  with this ancient custom, by Cretan warriors
  the last defendants of Constantinople in 1453,
  and carried back to Crete by the survivors.  The
  first music rendition of the dance is attributed
  to the violinist from Lousakies, Kissamos,
  Stefanos Triantafilakis or Kioros.  The
  Chaniotikos syrtos spread to the rest of Crete
  during the period between the two World Wars,
  gradually acquiring variations in style and
  expression.  It is a unique dance and
  particularly interesting due to the large number
  of accompanying melodies (tunes), created by fine
  musicians of the 19th and 20th century.

3

•             The siganos is a slow dance, as the
  name indicates, danced today by men and women at
  every feast.  In the past, however, it was danced
  mainly by women.  According to tradition, during
  Ottoman rule the Turkish lords (aga) used to
  invite Cretan families to so-called feasts, in
  order to have their wives and daughters dance.
   But they would strew chickpeas on the floor to
  make the women slip and fall and so ridicule them
  and humiliate them.  The Cretans didnt want the
  Turks to have it their way, so they used to tell
  the musicians, Christians in the majority, to
  play the siganos.  We dont know if this dance
  already existed or if it was improvised for that
  particular reason.  In the category of the
  syrtos dances we also have the rodo, which up
  till a few years ago was danced only in
  Lousakies, Kissamos, and the mikro-mikraki.

4

• The pentozali (according to word of mouth
  tradition, which after thorough investigation and
  cross-checking has become historical fact) took
  its present music-dance form and name during the
  period of the revolution of Daskaloyiannis in
  1770-71, perhaps by transforming an older
  pyrrichios dance.  It was named pentozali
  because it symbolizes the fifth zalo (step),
  that is, the fifth chance hope attempt to
  free Crete from the Turks.  It has ten steps, to
  commemorate the 10th October 1769, when the
  people of Sfakia made the decision to go ahead
  with the revolution, and its music consists of
  twelve music phrases (parts) in honour of the
  twelve leaders of the revolt.  Accounts which
  have been preserved say that up till the early
  1960s, the people of the provinces of Kissamos
  and Selinos, while dancing the pentozali, on
  hearing each tune of the dance music, used to
  call out the name of the captain that
  corresponded to the music phrase, in this way
  honouring the memory of Daskaloyiannis, his chief
  comrades and their revolt. The form of the
  pentozali is particularly unique, fast, dynamic
  and explosive.  The contemporary distinction
  between slow and fast was made in the 1950s,
  when some lyre players of Central Crete arranged
  the tune of the siganos dance of Central and
  Eastern Crete and then immediately moved into the
  pentozali.  That was when the slow pentozali,
  as it is called today, first appeared.

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• Maleviziotis It is also called Kastrinos
  Pidichtos.  It is danced in a circle by men and
  women holding hands shoulder-high (elbows bent).
   It is in 2/4 time and has 16 steps.  

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• In some of the dances we have mentioned here
  improvisations by the first dancer in line are
  a usual thing, while in others this is not the
  case.  What we must point out here is that each
  dance is determined by its own folk traditions,
  and they dictate the particular in style and
  movement improvisations.  That means that the
  first dancer may perform dance figures within
  bounds if he knows them or according to his own
  inspiration, without using movements from the
  improvisations of other dances.