SELORM MAUD BOTO
4TH PERIOD
MRS. DEVOT-PHILLIPPEAUX
ZORBA THE GREEK DANCE
The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its histor. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music,with more eastern sounds. These compositions have existed for millennia:they originated in the Byzantine period and Greek antiquity; there is a continous development which appears in the language,the rhythm,the structure and the melody. Music is a significant aspect of Hellenic culture,both within Greece and in the diaspora. One of the popular Greek dance is the Sirtaki or syrtaki,choreographed by Giorgos Provias for the 1964 film Zorba the Greek. It is not a traditional Greek folkdance,but a mixture of the slow and fast versions of the hasapiko dance. The dance, and the accompanying music by Mikis Theodorakis,are also called Zorba`s dance, Zorbas, or "the dance of Zorba". The name sirtaki comes from the Greek word: syrtos which means "drag the dance",a common name for a group of traditional Cretan dances of so-called "dragging" style,as opposed to pidikhtos,a hopping or leaping style. Despite that,sirtaki incorporates both syrtos and pidikhtos elements. "Zorbas" or more commonly the Zorba Dance is a song by a Greek