Cyprus

Κύπρος

Historical homeland

10 dances · 54 from the archive

Men's karsilamas suite (Cyprus) Ανδρικοί καρσιλαμάδες (Κύπρου) 9/8 · Two men facing each other, improvising.
Women's karsilamas suite (Cyprus) Γυναικείοι καρσιλαμάδες (Κύπρου) 9/8 · Two women facing each other; in the third they hold a handkerchief.
Cypriot zeibekikos Ζεϊμπέκικος Κύπρου 9/8 · Solo men's dance, improvised.
Kalamatianos Καλαματιανός 7/8 · Open circle, mixed, hands joined at shoulder height with elbows bent; the leader often holds the second dancer by a handkerchief and improvises.

Greek-Cypriot traditional music is played mainly on violin and laouto, in the past also with the pithkiavli (cane flute) and the tamboutsia (a percussion instrument). Men and women danced separately, usually in same-sex pairs and with much improvisation: the core dances are the face-to-face karsilamas dances in 9/8, the syrtos, the zeibekikos and men's virtuoso dances with objects, such as the tatsia (sieve) and the sickle. In the men's karsilamas suite the dancers also compete in tsiattista, improvised couplets.

From here

Also danced here

Kalamatianos Καλαματιανός 7/8 · Medium · Open circle, mixed, hands joined at shoulder height with elbows bent; the leader often holds the second dancer by a handkerchief and improvises. also danced here video + song

From the archive 54

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Cyprus

From here

Also danced here

From the archive 54

Sources