ABSTRACT
Greek traditional dance in southern European urban settings such as Athens is going through a boom period. Starting from an anthropological perspective of dance, this chapter provides the opportunity to examine common phenomena, and the ‘snapshots’ emerge as stories from the researcher’s eye through the lens of dance’s multiple literacies. It examines a phenomenon of urban dance using anthropological/ethnochoreological approaches to the study of dance. The ‘snapshots’ are indicative of what is happening at the moment in urban settings in Greece in terms of Greek traditional dance. The four hundred dancers, members of the Lyceum Club of Greek Women, dressed in traditional costumes, performed over seventy different dances from various regions of Greece, while visitors joined the dancers in a circle of Greek dancing. At the heart of the city, Syntagma Square is the central and most significant square in modern Athens historically, socially, commercially, and politically, and where countless activities take place.
