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| Athens, February 21, 2005 |
Dear Ms. Henkel: You have requested information about the spoon dance from Cappadocia. This dance has become renowned in the style that the Dora Stratou Ensemble presented the dance on the stage in the 1970s (this has been portrayed and widely circulated on post cards and, recently, has also appeared on stamps issued by the Greek post office). The first written ethnological accounts also appear in the 1970s (Alkis Raftis, Engyklopedia tou ellinikou chorou , 1995, ISBN 960-7204-11-5, entry on “ chouliere ”), this book should be available at MELTEMI. They also have recordings of the original music there. It seems to me that Turkish folklore dance ensembles, which also have similar dances in their repertoire, influenced Dora Stratou's presentation. In any case, the dance is an "iso," which is a "basic" step for the dances of Asia Minor. The rhythms produced by the spoons in the background are representative of a festive, joyous and flowing atmosphere like at a celebration with close friends and family. It markedly differs from dances made for formal settings in the public sphere. These are dances practiced in intimate private places and are different from the round dances known throughout Greece, the Balkans and the Pontos region. Formerly, this type of dance could only be conceived of with same-sex dance partners, with men dancing with men and women dancing with women. The written documentation – as can be seen in Raftis – refers to the Cappadocian municipalities of Rokopi, Neapolis, Misti, Farasa, Sinasos, Caesarea and Nigdi (I believe Dora Stratou got her costumes from Silli), which are all places where orthodox Christian Greeks lived. Recordings have been made of this dance, for example at carnival and family gatherings. Strictly speaking this dance does not have a name; as most of the names of dances describe the conventions of the dance teachers. People would give names to the songs or melodies that they liked to dance to. Thus, because the songs here were mostly of Turkish origin and because of the nationalistic and anti-Turkish sentiments the names of the songs were not handed down. A concise portrayal of the real dance performed by Cappadocian refugees of the second generation is available on video with a book published recently by Ioannis Prantsidis, O choros stin elliniki paradosi kai i didaskalia tou, Aiginio . ISBN 960-630-332-2. I hope to have been of some assistance in providing you with this information and wish you all the best with your project. If you have any further questions, I would be happy to help, but please write in English (!!!), because no one in our office understands German. Sincerely, Evangelia Antzaka, folklorist |
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