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A Celebration
of Life through Dance! The Kyklos Hellenic Society left the crowd breathless. Their extensive repertoire was evident, and its members jubilant in their individual and group effort. The dramatic opening from Naoussa, Macedonia, Yanitsari Carnival Dance, set the tone for the entire evening, high energy, filled with flashes of movement, swords, and costume. A photo speaks a thousand words. The performance was uniquely organized to allow the audience to taste every genre, dance, song, and instrumentals. The artistic depth was provided by dancers, Tom Alexandris, Stacy Bogdonas, Chris Caris, Anna Chalogianis, Stephanie Cibulka, Peggy Collias, Elaine Dallas, Alexia Economou, Voula Erfourth, Harry Gaggos, Joanna George, Paul George, Eleni Gouvas, Charlie Koupparis, William Lianos, Vasiliki Michalakis, Chris Mortis, Kiki Panagopoulos, Christina Peppes, John Peppes, Sophia Raptis, Athena Skoutelas, Stacey Theophelis, Vasili Tsavalias, Angela Vergos, George Vlahakis, and Despina Voulgaropoulos. President John Peppes described the performance, "Tonight is about exploring and enjoying life. We invite everyone to celebrate with us as we introduce a variety of dances from many different regions of Greece and Asia Minor. We hope that all who attended enjoyed the performance and music and will continue to support our mission, to promote, educate and preserve our Greek heritage and culture through music, song and dance." The program was extensive and included presentations representing, Naoussa, Macedonia, Thessaly and Macedonia, Central Macedonia, Florina, N. Macedonia, Asvestades, Trace, Cappadoccia, Asia Minor, Michanikos, Salamis, Saronic Gulf, and Kalamata, Peloponese. The dancers rhythmic renditions of the traditional Greek dances, Yanitsari, Tsamikos, Gaida Kartzobas, Zaramo, Xersirtos, Tapinos Choros, Issos, Sousta, Hassapikos, Koulouriotikos, and a rousing encore of the Kalamatianos, were inspiring. Those who may have attended will think that there have been a few omissions, not to worry, the highlights of the evening, the dance of the scarves, and a performance by Christina Peppes of the Greek standard "Thalassaki" left the audience moved to tears. The Traditional Songs from the Island of Chios were amazing. "The five popular melodies" by Maurice Ravel, were transcribed in the 1930's by renowned harpist, Carlos Salzedo. Harpist Maritsa Madias-Kalasz and Soloist, Sophia Raptis were dynamic in their presentation of the historical suite of songs, which were discovered by M.D. Calvocoressi on the Island of Chios; translated into French and set to music by Ravel. Featured Musicians were the Levendes, legendary for its high energy Greek and American Entertainment. The intensity and style of their music complimented the talents of the evening's performances. They were joined by special guest artists, Beth Bahia Cohen on the violin and lyra and Panayiotis League on the Bouzouki, and traditional island string and percussion instruments. The Kyklos Society was formed in 2005 and has performed an aggressive schedule from Troy, MI to Tarpon Springs, Fl. Their stellar performance during the Super Bowl festivities, "Nations in Rhythm Detroit." The group hopes to perpetuate their mission by conducting research, interviews, studies, workshops and travel. Peppes advises, "We will participate in dance workshops, we will host dance workshops and we hope to some day travel to Greece to learn and perform first hand in the villages and with the famous Dora Stratou Theatre in Athens. We hope to instill enthusiasm and passion in the adult community so that we can build that important infrastructure that will allow for our children and our children's children to know what it means to be Greek." Malista commends the efforts of this outstanding group, and encourages them to continue to celebrate life. They have much to offer and the Greek Community has so much to gain from their generous contribution to the theater and the arts. kyklosdancers@kyklosdancers.com Malista! |
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