Even though available knowledge is limited, we may presume that dance continued to evolve uninterrupted, fulfilling the social needs of the Greek villagers. An analogy may be sought in the maintenance of the language: though the Greeks lived alongside other people under Ottoman rule, they continued to speak Greek, and so it was with their dances, which preserved their distinctiveness.

The dances of Ottoman-ruled Greece are described in the accounts of contemporary European travellers, many of whom stopped here en route to the Holy Land. Their impressions and observations, which were invariably published upon returning home, are usually imbued with an air of romanticism and a touch of the exotic. As far as Greece was concerned, comparison with ancient Greeks was inevitable and runs through virtually every paragraph. These testimonies should be treated with circumspection, since some travellers were not averse to drawing on their imagination to complete their accounts with things they did not actually see, while others had no scruples in copying the accounts of previous visitors. Those who did not speak Greek were apt to rely on the badly translated replies of the first person they chanced upon. Even so, the observations of these intrepid voyagers are an invaluable source of information about this period.

Names of dances referenced or described in detail in the texts are Kritikos, Hellenikos, Arnaoutikos, Vlachikos, Pyrrhichios, Ionikos. Some of these names are probably the invention of the writers in their attempt to classify the dances they had seen, since it is highly unlikely that Greeks would call one of their dances Hellenikos. In addition, the name Pyrrhichios may be attributed to voyagers who had read about the ancient dance and tried to recognize similarities and continuity with the ancient world.

During this time of the Turkish occupation, new dances are created to praise and commemorate the heroism of the Greeks and their desire for independence and freedom.

Examples of such dances are the following:

Kaggeleftos
It is a historic dance commemorating the revolution of Chalkidiki against Turks during the Turkish occupation. According to the tradition, the Greek revolutionaries were caught, led to the center of the village, and commanded to form a chain holding each other. While they were passing in front of the Turks, they were beheaded one-by-one.

Makrinitsa or Krinitsa
According to the tradition, this was danced during the Independence War by the women who, in order to avoid captivity, had cast themselves over the waterfalls of Naousa, singing and dancing as they did so. Krinitsa was the name of the woman who was leading them.

Dance of Zaloggos
This dance commemorates a similar episode in Zaloggos in Epirus.

Enteka (Skorpios)
The Turkish authorities seem to have ordered the Greek coffee-shops and taverns to close down at 11:00 at night. So, while the men were going home, they were singing and dancing a free-style dance, which took its name from the time of the day that they were doing it!

Carnival Dances
Certain Carnival dances are also associated with the War of Independence, such as the Boules in Naousa. During the revolutionary struggle, the warriors used to come down from the mountains to the city of Naousa, at night all through Carnival. Thus, disguised as mascaraders, they could slip past the Authorities unobserved, and in this way they could communicate with their relatives and friends.

Tag: Greek Dancing - Turkish Occupation