The basic rebetiko dances are three: the zeibekikos, the hassapikos and the tsifteteli. However there are other, minor, dance rhythms whose origins are located in the entire geographical and national spectrum of the Balkans and Asia Minor: the karsilamas is of Turkish origin, means "facing each other" and resembles the zeibekikos, the syrtos and the ballos are Greek island dances.
The rebetiko dances became well known all over little, newly-independent 1830's Greece, following the annexation of Macedonia and Thrace where they were already familiar to the Greek Population. However, it was the Asia Minor refugees of 1922 those who initiated the locals into the rebetiko dances and contributed to their becoming popular all over motherland Greece.
