Supervisors info:
Κουτσούμπα Μαρία, Καθηγήτρια, ΣΕΦΑΑ, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
In the dance science context, in Choreology, the answer in the question “what is dance?”, derives from the study and analysis of the “material” hypostasis of the dance movement, the dance “form”. In this basis, recognizing the material components of dance, and the way by these are combined, it is possible to study the dance along with the social environment, its birth context and its recreation. The aim of this dissertation, is the study and the recording of the traditional dance in the community of Tserkovitsa (or Theologos) in Northern Epirus. In particular, this study aims, on the one hand, in the dance form analysis, and on the other hand on the social context of the dance, in the context of the “participatory” dance events of the specific Greek community. The ethnographic data collection is based in the ethnographic fieldwork research, under the terms of the participant “observation”. The analysis of the local dance repertoire of Tserkovitsa was accomplished by the Labanotation system and the morphological dance method analysis. For the data interpretation of this study, the meanings of the “participatory” dance and the “participatory dace events” were used. By using the dance as an “aim” and not just as a “mean” of the ethnographic observation, this study highlighted the “core” of the dance tradition of a Greek community outside, as well as inside of the borders of Greece. As a conclusion, the life of the Greeks in Tserkovitsa – and in Tserkovitsa – between two “homelands”, is mixed with historical as well as political events, which, among others, defined and define the constant negotiation of their cultural identity within the field of the “participatory” dance, as well as the fluid boundaries of “locality” of “their” music and dance tradition.
Keywords:
traditional dance, participatory dance, Northern Epirus, Albania, Tserkovitsa or Theologos, Greek minority
