A seminar in the heart of the tradition from the Greek islands From July 21st to July 31st, 2009 Tradition, dance, music, history & culture from the Cyclades Nikos Kazantzakis, who once lived for a year It is in Naxos that you will celebrate, enjoy in the village of Eggares, and where he wrote and share the Aegean life and pleasures, “Anafora sto Greko”, “Report to El Greco”, during 11 days and… 11 nights ! wrote the following about Naxos : Naxos is the greatest and the greenest island in the Cyclades, with many fertile and Αν ο παραδεισος ηταν cultivated valleys, and more than 40 traditio- « nal, typical villages. At the top of the island, στην γη, θα ηταν εδω the Mount Zas dominates, being the highest » mountain in all of the Cycladic Islands. On the seaside, many endless, beautiful “If paradise were on earth, beaches lead Naxos to be the Cycladic Island it would be here, in Naxos” with the longest coast, with 148 kilometers. Chora, the main city, has an impressive 5,000-year history, with traces from all In July 2009, the periods : Cycladic, Classic, we propose a fes- Hellenistic, Byzantine, and tive, musical and cultural seminar in Naxos, Venetian. The island has the living and vibrating heart of the Cyclades, more than 500 churches, the very center of the the Greek archipelago, 40 towers & castles, 130 and also the center of the musical and cho- windmills & watermills. reographic life for the 30 Cycladic Islands. After a whole year of intense Naxos is the preparation, & with the strong real heart of partnership of the Naxos the musical community, the Council of Drymalias, and the Cultural and choreographic Associations of the life of the Cyclades, villages, we propose a and succeeded in preserving a unique 11-day seminar, very rich, very lively and very in the rhythm of the unique patrimony. Naxos is the Welcome “nisiotika”, in the rhythm of the Cycladic Island with the stron- waving, flowing and swaying gest dance and music tradition, to Naxos ! music from those unique Greek and this extraordinary heritage islands. radiates within the whole Aegean Sea and within Greece, Welcome Naxos welcomes you with making “nissiotika” synony- its huge marble portal, the mous with “naxiotika” and vice- to paradise ! “portara”, vestige from the unfi- versa. nished Apollon temple, which was supposed to be the biggest This seminar has the objective temple, ever, in antique Greece. to enable you to discover, share, Νικος Καζαντζακης This symbol tells you, at your live and deepen the Naxian life arrival, the richness, depth and and culture. Therefore, our part- greatness of the Naxian or Naxiote ners for this seminar will be true culture. “Naxiotes”, with deep, long and strong Naxian roots. We will not “land”, drop or It is in Naxos, in Nyssa, that Dionysos, ∆ιονυσος “parachute” in Naxos a program being God of vine and wine, was born. , foreign to Naxos. the twice-born God, once from his mother Semele, once from his father’s thigh, Zeus, gave to mankind the vine, wine, drunkenness, ecstasy, trance and rapture. Dionysos married Adriane “in Naxos”, and they both lived very happy in the island. The songs, the music and the dances were “dionysiac” ! A whole pro- gram… and soon your program ! DURING 11 DAYS, BE A “NISIOTIS”, BE A “NAXIOTIS” A UNIQUE, ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE This is a unique invitation to the νισιωτικα, to the “nisiotika”, these unique For the first time in Naxos, a seminar is dances from the Aegean Sea. prepared and organized with the Naxiotes. 11 One of the greatest civilizations was born days to be shared with them, to be spent in in the Aegean Sea, long ago. the villages, and to be “immersed” in the Thanks to the antique writer Homere, we Naxian tradition, this famous “παραδοση”. have an explanation to the word “Aegean”. In Our goal consisted in being as close as pos- old Greek, “aisso” was meaning “jumping”. sible to the islanders, to their daily “aix”, the goat, is a close word, life, to their history and culture. because it is the “jumping” ani- Therefore, we started prepa- mal, and the Greek animal, too. ring this seminar with them, from Metaphorically, the Greeks the beginning, step by step. All name “aiges” the big, large the thinking, all the ideas, all the waves of their sea, their initiatives & decisions have been “This island had a great sweet- “jumping” sea, teased and made in a close relationship with fiddled by the meltem, this the Naxiotes, so that we may ness, and a lot of peacefulness.All mens' faces legendary Greek wind. build with them a really genuine, Therefore, the sea became authentic seminar. were looking good. Melons, peaches, grapes and “Aegean”… We will meet with many figs were countless.The sea was quiet. I look at This sea is the liquid link bet- Naxiotes, and we will go to the ween between 3 continents : places where their tradition was those people : they have never been worried by Europe, Africa, and Asia. It has born : the villages in the moun- an earthquake, nor by a Turk, and their eyes been the place of birth for many cultures & tains and in the valleys, the small fishing har- civilizations. bours, the places where this tradition is trans- were not burnt. Here, freedom had switched off The main archipelago in the Aegean Sea is mitted and shared, with passion, strength and the fever for feedom, and life was just flowing, the Kyklades, with more than 30 islands, from authenticity. the biggest (Naxos) to the smaller ones : We will danse in the villages : morning, like a sleeping and happy water; and if sometime Andros, Tinos, Syros, Mykonos, Naxos, afternoon, evening, night. We will not be in it was a little troubled, it was never facing a Paros, AntiParos, Ios, Thira/Santorini, Milos, an hotel for the dances, we will not be dis- Sifnos, Serifos, Kythnos, Kea, Amorgos, connected from the Naxos daily life. Our tea- storm nor a hurricane. Serenity was the very Anafi, Folegandros, Thirasia, Iraklia, ching will be where the Naxiotes dance, or first gift from the island, and I was feeling it, Kimolos, Schinoussa, Donoussa, Koufounisi, learn dancing : the squares in the villages, in Keros, Poliegos, AntiMilos, Glaros, Rinia, front of the church, the school or the “kafe- while dawdling in Naxos... Delos, … neio”. This will be a step from us towards the Nikos Kazantzakis This archipelago has been and still is the Naxiotes, and a friendly way to have them be well, the hearth and the melting pot for a with us, and able to react, interact, or simply popular culture, and for a lively tradition. join us ! This exceptional heritage has been preserved Our teachers, our choregraphers, will be in Naxos, thanks to the attachment of the first rank dancers, having a name, a fame, and Naxiotes to their island, to their land, to their a high respect within Naxos, but also within village, to their roots. And the dances, so Greece and abroad. Each one is coming from beautiful, so fluid, so flowing, are “waving” a specific village, and we will have our tea- like the sea, like life… ching in the village where each teacher is The Aegean Sea is everywhere : around the coming from. islands, but also in the heart, the soul, the The dances in Naxos, the “nisiotika”, were blood and the mind of all Aegeans, which is born from a unique alchemy between old ins- why their dances have this unique style and truments from Naxos, and newly-come ins- rhythm. Once you have seen, listened to or truments in the 20s, such as violin and lute, dances those dances, you cannot forget them, when refugees arrived from Asia Minor, esca- they are inside you. ping from massacre, torture and extermina- Most of those dances were born in Naxos, tion. A unique fusion took place with old before being spread to other islands. naxian instruments, such as “tsambouna”, Today, for the first time, we suggest a semi- flute and drum. nar within Naxos, with the Naxiotes, in the The result was a very attractive and fasci- villages where they were born, with dancers, nating music, which spread out of the islands teachers and musicians from those villages, to the rest of Greece, and then to the rest of too. the world, being a companion to all emi- It will be for you the unique opportunity grants, and a symbol of the so much loved to meet with the Naxiotes, to live a rare expe- Aegean Sea. rience in a Greece still preserved, authentic, ancestral, forgotten, and magical … We will also learn dances from other It will be for you the unique way to share Kyklades, around Naxos : beautiful, yet unk- nown or forgotten dances from Sifnos, moments that will turn out to be rare, warm, Serifos, Kythnos, Amorgos, Mykonos, Paros, joyful, and unforgettable… We will be, you Rodos, etc. will be every day with the islanders, with a community that has been tightly associated to this seminar, which will be theirs, as much as it will be yours. THE NISSIOTE υφος seen. It is at the top of “Mount Zas”, that has THE NAXIAN his name, that Zeus received the thunder and υφος the lightning, and those gifts, given by an Dance is not limited to steps, nor reduced eagle, enabled him to reign on Olympos, and to a rhythm, or a comnination of moves. on all other Gods. Now it is your turn to come to Naxos, and Steps and moves are to dance what respira- to receive, live and share the magic of the tion and breathing are to life : a minimum, a island, so that you may make yours a tradi- necessity, a basis to start from.