Epirus

Ήπειρος

12 dances · 120 from the archive

Giatros Γιατρός 2/4 · Open circle, mixed, 'W' hold.
Zagorisios Ζαγορίσιος 5/4 · Large open circle, arms bent at the elbows ('W' hold); the leader improvises.
Kangeli Καγκέλι Starts in a closed circle with palms joined; later the dancers split into couples.
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.

Epirote music is led by the clarinet of the kompania, with violin, laouto and frame drum, and pentatonic polyphonic singing survives in the north, in Pogoni and Konitsa. Its dances are among the slowest and heaviest in Greece: they are danced in an open circle with restraint and balance, while the leader improvises. Each dance has its own rhythm, such as the pogonisios in 4/4, the zagorisios in 5/4, the tsamikos in 3/4 and the berati in 8/4, and at a feast the faster tunes, such as the koftos and the fisouni, usually come later.

Epirus

Sub-areas

From here

Also danced here

From the archive 120

Sources