Festival and dance seminar & workshop: the Cyclads and Naxos ! Organized by the non profit Franco- Greek cultural association Nisiotis Dance, music, culture, tradition, history and memories of the Cyclads from 19 July to 1 August 2010 This exceptional 12-day seminar is A year of intense preparation, in part- aiming at you, who are passionate about nership with the dancers and musicians of Greece and Greek music and dance. the island, the Town Hall of Naxos Drymalias, the villages and their cultural More than just a seminar: a real festival, associations, allows us to offer you a rich a total immersion in the extraordinary and unprecedented and unrivalled pro- island of Naxos, one of the most musical gramm : a new, rare and unique experience : and dance-oriented islands in the whole getting to know the Naxians and the very Greece. 12 days and nights of celebration rich and vibrant cultural heritage of Naxos, with our Naxian friends ! the island with the greatest music and A unique opportunity for a once in a life- dance tradition in the Cyclades. time experience amongst an island com- munity which has an exceptional tradition 12 days in contact with Greece as it used of welcome and hospitality. to be, ancestral, forgotten and magic, sha- ring rare, joyous and warm moments with The seminar we offer you is very an outstanding community of islanders. friendly, musical and cultural, and takes place in Naxos, the living, vibrant heart of Getting to know the inhabitants of ON THE PROGRAMM music and dance in this unique archipelago, Naxos, there where the tradition was born, made up of more than 30 islands. where it sprang from, where it is still thri- • 5 hours of dance each day (2 hours The seminar is open to all who love ves, is shared and passed on, with energy, in the morning, 3 hours in the after- dance, tradition, culture, life and history of passion and authenticity. noon), with a visit to a different the Cyclads, of the Aegean Sea and Greece. village every other day A lot more than just a dance seminar… • A guided tour of each village, so a voyage into the history, the tradition, the Welcome that you can learn all about its histori- culture and the soul of the islands and the cal and cultural tradition Aegean Sea…with the Naxians themselves !! to Naxos! • A dinner and celebration in the eve- ning with a group of musicians from A seminar in the very-heart of Greek tra- the village, in the traditional family dition: 12 exceptional days, with the Welcome to taverns serving the famous local deli- rhythm of the “nisiotika”, the violin, the cious cuisine laouto and the swaying, undulating music “paradise…” • Concerts with masters of Naxian of the Greek islands. music A 12-day seminar organized with the Νικος Καζαντζακης • A day trip by boat to the Little Naxians : for the first time in Naxos, and Cyclades, with connections to Naxos: very different from “the usual thing”: a dance Irakleia, Schinousa, Koufounisia, Keros, seminar in the heart of the villages, with the Donoussa dance teachers, the musicians and the inhabi- • A day exploring the island, with a tants of each village, in every village ! visit to locations with links to tradition: For what good is a dance seminar in a maker and player of the tsambouna, Greece if the seminar takes place …in the a weaver’s workshop, a local distillery, hotel ? Our seminar takes place in the vil- an olive oil press, farms and vineyards, lages that are part of the Naxian tradition, etc. in complete collaboration with each village. • Accommodation in a family hotel in That’s the best and only way to run a tradi- Apollonas, a small fishing port, with an tional seminar in Greece! extremely charming atmosphere. THE ISLAND region is actually in that region itself, and Naxos welcomes you with OF DIONYSUS, that is the only real reason for basing the its marble gate of more than five OF CELEBRATION, seminar there ! discover, meters, the remains of the unfinished tem- MUSIC, DANCE, WINE Our aim is to enable you to meet and interact with the Naxians, who ple of Apollo, planned in Ancient Greece AND THE JOY OF LIVING! everyday create the life, the richness and to be the largest temple in the country. As the tradition of the island. It was at Naxos that Dionysus was born, soon as you arrive, this symbol tells you of The dancers, the musicians, the dance the god of the vine, of wine and its excess. the richness and grandeur of the “Naxian” ∆ιονυσος the “twice born”, from the teachers: our partners, friends and brothers or “Naxiote” culture. womb of Semele and the thigh of Zeus, he in dance for this seminar will be the islan- gave men the vine, wine, drunkenness and ders, the Nisiotes…the Naxiotes! therefore celebration, ecstasy and trance. He also married Ariane “on Naxos” where FOR 12 DAYS AND… he lived happy and in love. His songs and music were called “dionysiac”. 12 NIGHTS… BECOME A Nikos Kazantzakis, who lived for a year in NAXIOTIS ! BECOME A A complete programm… your complete the Naxian village of Eggares, in 1896, and programm, now !! NISIOTIS ! So it’s on Naxos that you will celebrate where he wrote “Letter to El Greco”, ano- and share the pleasures of the Aegean over Here is an invitation to νισιωτικα, to ther famous Cretan, wrote about Naxos: a 12-day period. "nisiotika”, the dances of the Greek Islands, the dances of the Aegean Sea. Αν ο παραδεισος ηταν Naxos is the largest and the most ver- In the Aegean Sea one of the greatest « dant of the Cyclads, with many fertile and civilisations was born, thousands of years στην γη, θα ηταν εδω » cultivated valleys, and more than 40 tradi- ago. tional typical villages. The word “Aegean” first originated with “If paradise was on the At the highest point of the island and Homer and came from the ancient Greek the Cyclads rises Mount Zeus, more than “aisso”, or “jump”. earth, it would be here, at 1,000 meters high. “Aix”, [the goat], is another word which Naxos" Down below, a succession of beaches came from it, as the goat, the symbolic ani- that grow more and more beautiful mal of Greece, is an animal that jumps. towards the south, make Naxos the island Speaking metaphorically, the Ancient with the most extended coastline of the Greeks called the large waves of their sea Cyclads, with more than 148 kilometers in “aigues”, as the Etesian winds made them “This island was a very all. appear to jump. “Aegean” is therefore their Chora, the capital of the island, with sea, meaning “with waves”. gentle, tranquil place; the faces of the more than 5,000 years of history, bears The Aegean Sea, which makes a watery people were kindly, the melons, the pea- witness to the Cycladic, Classical, connection between three continents, ches and the figs abundant, and the sea Hellenistic, Byzantine and Venetian eras. Europe, Asia and Africa, was the place The island has more than 500 churches, where many cultures were born, developed calm. I looked at the men: these men more than 40 castles and more than 130 and met. were never frightened by an earthquake windmills and watermills… The main archipelago of the Aegean or a Turk, and their eyes were not burning. Sea, the Cyclades, made up of 30 islands, Naxos is the true heart of the music and was and is the melting pot of a popular cul- Here, freedom itself had extinguished the dance life of the Cyclades, and has mana- ture, a tradition both rich and vibrant, and frenzy for freedom, and life took its ged to preserve a very rich and living heri- of a unique musical and dance heritage. course, the waters having subsided; and if tage. It is far and away the island with the And its dances, beautiful, fluid and undu- strongest music and dance tradition in the lating, just like the waves of the surroun- sometimes they were a little troubled, this Cyclads, a tradition which has spread ding and omnipresent sea, never fail to never turned into a storm. The serenity I throughout the Aegean and the whole of seduce and captivate all those who have experienced as I strolled around Naxos Greece, so much so that “nissiotika” is seen them, attempted or danced them at often synonymous for “n axiotika” and least once. These dances, the νισιωτικα, was the island’s first gift to me” vice-versa… were mostly born on Naxos, before being Nikos Kazantzakis passed on to the rest of the archipelago. The aim of this seminar is not to “para- Today, for the first time on Naxos, we chute” onto the island of Naxos a pro- offer you the chance to learn them on gramme that is foreign to Naxos, nor do Naxos, in the villages where they were we wish to have dancers and teachers who born, with the dancers, and dance teachers are not from Naxos. That would be a real who come from these villages. non-sense. For the aim of a seminar on It will also be an opportunity for you to Naxos is for people to learn the dances and meet the Naxians and the villagers, to traditions of Naxos with the Naxians and experience contact with the ancestral, for- not to learn the dances of Asia Minor, gotten and magic Greece of the past, and Epirus, Thrace or Macedonia. To learn the to share in rare, joyous and cordial dances of Epirus or Thrace you need to go moments with a community of islanders to Epirus or Thrace, to learn in the coun- with whom we have prepared this seminar, try of origin, to observe, listen and the first of its kind, with great pleasure on immerse yourself in the local culture.