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Please ID this bouzouki song!

Feel free to talk about anything that you want.

Postby Natty » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:52 am

Kartal_Aetos wrote:hmm...the similar ones are the Cypriot ones... my favourites are Sarhos Zeybegi and Kibris Zeybegi

and hey, i forgot on the first post...Congratulations on the wedding, mate :)


Is that the Kypriako zembekiko (Cypriot Zembekiko)? In Cyprus the folk traditional zembekiko, has been kept, and is danced slightly differently to the Modern 'Blue's' version. In some of the rembetika 'Zembekika' songs, the Cypriot Zembekiko beat (Which is slightly different) is used, although the mainland Greeks dance to that beat slightly differently (Although I think that the 'Cypriot Zembekiko beat' is the original folk beat, where as the modern 'Blues' version has evolved and adapted slightly, but I love dancing to both! :))

I could slightly wrong in the things I've said though (I'm no dance historian! :))
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Postby Natty » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:13 am

eracles wrote:
Natty wrote:
No problem eracles, it was my pleasure! :P

Where are based, because if your in Cyprus, just go to a Record store and they should have plenty, go for the 'laika', 'Zembekika', 'Rembetika', etc.. Style CD's, they should have the old stuff on them. I'm not too sure about elsewhere..I'm based in England but I tend to stock up whenever I go to Cyprus, although I have downloaded a few of the classics from the Internet. I'm sure they sell the records of the older generation Greek singers in Greek/Cypriot record stores as well. Just ask your mum, I'm sure she'll know all their names! ;) :D

Oh and speaking of the dance Zembekiko, I came across some guy dancing it on Mytube..you didn't film yourself, by any chance, did you?? :!: :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRzLKVbj ... ck%20white


Hi Natty, i'm up north in Leeds but I wish i was in Cyprus :P
Anyway I could upload a youtube video of my entire extended family laughing at me trying to dance but I'm burning up at the thought of it :oops: Next year I will post my much improved version which I'll be doing for my wedding!

Thanks for the CD suggestions, any Turkish Zeybek recommendations, wouldn't mind checking it out too...


Lol, me too, but it's here in the Midlands I've gotta stay...(well at least until the summer! :)).

And there's me thinking it was you dancing in that MyTube video clip! :shock: :D

Hey, I'm sure you did great! That's the thing about Zembekiko, you don't have to know all these fancy moves, as long as you 'feel' the music, and enjoy yourself! :D
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Postby Kartal_Aetos » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:00 am

Natty wrote:
Kartal_Aetos wrote:hmm...the similar ones are the Cypriot ones... my favourites are Sarhos Zeybegi and Kibris Zeybegi

and hey, i forgot on the first post...Congratulations on the wedding, mate :)


Is that the Kypriako zembekiko (Cypriot Zembekiko)? In Cyprus the folk traditional zembekiko, has been kept, and is danced slightly differently to the Modern 'Blue's' version. In some of the rembetika 'Zembekika' songs, the Cypriot Zembekiko beat (Which is slightly different) is used, although the mainland Greeks dance to that beat slightly differently (Although I think that the 'Cypriot Zembekiko beat' is the original folk beat, where as the modern 'Blues' version has evolved and adapted slightly, but I love dancing to both! :))

I could slightly wrong in the things I've said though (I'm no dance historian! :))


yes, the music is very very similar to the kypriako zembekiko...there is a slight variation in the dance though...The TC dance has a few more steps...The sarhos zeybegi (drunken zembekiko) is a TC dance and is exactly the same to the dances i saw on monday to the beat of Monos Mou...
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Postby Kartal_Aetos » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:11 am

the other similar dances are Karsilama (Karsilamades), Sirto (Syrtos), one we call Cifte telli (i dunno the GC name for it)

"The Zeybek dances come from western Turkey, near the Aegean Sea. Stemming from tales of heroism, the Zeybek style shows the pride, the confidence and the courage of the Western Anatolian people. They follow a slower but stronger beat. The word "Zeybek" refers to the protector of people and the dancers depict the confidence of such figures in these dances."

with the aegean coast of turkey being populated by greeks and turks sometime ago in history, its easy to see why the cultures are intertwined

I dont know if the following are similar to any GC dances but you can read and tell me :) its taken from the site kmfolkdance.com

Traditional Turkish Cypriot folk dances can be divided into 5 categories: Karsilamas, Sirtos, Zeybeks, Ciftetellis & Arabiyes, and Topical Dances.

Karsilama

Karsilama means coming face to face in Turkish. It is danced by two or more dancers by coming face to face, among whom there exists a very good friendship. This causes a smiling mimic on the dancers' faces because of their happiness of enjoying together. There are separate women karsilamas and men karsilamas. In some karsilamas dancers use a handkerchief and dance by (each of them) holding one side of it. Some dancers might from time to time show their special talents like spinning, jumping, kneeling, or hitting their feet or legs or the ground with their hands in accordance with the rhythm of the music simultaneously with spinning or jumping or kneeling... Karsilamas are named with numbers. Karsilama 1, Karsilama 2, Karsilama 3, Karsilama 4, Women's Karsilama 3, Women's Karsilama 4, etc... And they are usually played and danced in the same ascending order as listed here.

Sirto

Sirtos are one of the most liked folk dances and music in Cyprus. Sirto comes from the Greek Syrtos. However, it is easy to also observe the Turkish motives in the ones used in Cyprus. Even Ottoman Sultans liked very much this Greek music form and composed songs in that form. The most popular non-anonymous example is the Hicaz Sirto of 32nd Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz, which is known in North Cyprus among Turkish Cypriots as Aziziye Sirto. Similarly it is known (played and danced) in the South Cyprus among Greek Cypriots as Aziziyes Syrtos. This is quite normal taking into consideration that the two communities lived together for a very long time in Cyprus history. In some parts of sirtos pairs of dancers hold a handkerchief from its two sides as in karsilamas. When one of the dancers starts making skillful movements the other stops dancing and keeps holding the handkerchief firmly so that his friend will not fall down. Seherli Sirtosu, Aziziye Sirto, Iskele Sirtosu, Azize, Kina Sirtosu, etc, are the most popular sirtos...

Zeybek

Zeybeks are relatively slow and have more swaggering attitude than other dances. They represent the determination, braveness and strength of the males. Zeybeks' origin is known to be Turkish. They have also been used by Greeks. Greek Cypriots call it "Zeybekikos" and Rhodos Greeks call it "Turkikos". They are very popular in Western and Central Anatolia. In zeybeks which have lyrics, the parts with lyrics are not danced. Cyprus Zeybeks are relatively faster. Abdal Zeybegi, Sarhos Zeybegi, Kibris Zeybegi, Iskele Zeybegi are the most popular zeybeks...

Ciftetelli and Arabiye

Ciftetellis and Arabiyes are free dance forms danced by females. Female dancers swing their heads, shake their shoulders and chests, swing their bellies and hips, etc, mostly to attract males. Some examples are Ciftetelli, Bahriye Ciftetellisi, Mevlana, Arabiye 1, Arabiye 2, etc...

Topical Dances

These are the dramatic dances with some themes from daily life or special events. They can be categorized into 5 groups according to their themes: animal motions and behaviors, daily and special human activities, male-female relations, nature facts and events, fights and battles with or without guns. Music of many of these dances contain lyrics. The significance of these lyrics is to strengthen the effect of the movements in the dances. These dances enable skillful dancers to illustrate interesting aspects of the corresponding themes. Orak, Kozan, Kartal, Topal, Degirmenci, Nisan, etc, are the most popular examples in this category...

Some examples Topical Dances:

Orak: Orak means sickle in Turkish. This dance is about harvesting time. Farmer men use their sickles to harvest. Their women also help them. The women give water (in jugs) to thirsty and tired men. Some of the men, when they become vigorous or when they want to show off, start to show their expertise in using their sickles. They throw up and catch their sickles repeatedly, use two sickles simultaneously for harvesting, etc...

Kozan: This is danced with a water jug in "henna nights" (a part of wedding ceremonies), after the bride's hand has been put henna. At the end of this dance which is danced by only females, the bride brakes the jug by throwing it to the ground. The broken jug symbolizes an everlasting happiness. Another belief is that the pieces of this broken jug (and the coins and sweets put a-priori inside the jug) which spread on the ground when the jug is broken symbolize fertility.

Kartal: Kartal means eagle in Turkish. This dance is about the struggle of an eagle not to let his prey be seized by other eagles.

Topal: Topal means lamed in Turkish. This dance is about the struggle of a lamed bridegroom candidate with his "would be" father-in-law who does not like him as a husband for his daughter even though he is also lamed.



I used to actually dance in a group at weddings, balls, festivals and so on...was a great time of my youth :)
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Postby Natty » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:03 am

Kartal_Aetos wrote:the other similar dances are Karsilama (Karsilamades), Sirto (Syrtos), one we call Cifte telli (i dunno the GC name for it)

"The Zeybek dances come from western Turkey, near the Aegean Sea. Stemming from tales of heroism, the Zeybek style shows the pride, the confidence and the courage of the Western Anatolian people. They follow a slower but stronger beat. The word "Zeybek" refers to the protector of people and the dancers depict the confidence of such figures in these dances."

with the aegean coast of turkey being populated by greeks and turks sometime ago in history, its easy to see why the cultures are intertwined

I dont know if the following are similar to any GC dances but you can read and tell me :) its taken from the site kmfolkdance.com

Traditional Turkish Cypriot folk dances can be divided into 5 categories: Karsilamas, Sirtos, Zeybeks, Ciftetellis & Arabiyes, and Topical Dances.

Karsilama

Karsilama means coming face to face in Turkish. It is danced by two or more dancers by coming face to face, among whom there exists a very good friendship. This causes a smiling mimic on the dancers' faces because of their happiness of enjoying together. There are separate women karsilamas and men karsilamas. In some karsilamas dancers use a handkerchief and dance by (each of them) holding one side of it. Some dancers might from time to time show their special talents like spinning, jumping, kneeling, or hitting their feet or legs or the ground with their hands in accordance with the rhythm of the music simultaneously with spinning or jumping or kneeling... Karsilamas are named with numbers. Karsilama 1, Karsilama 2, Karsilama 3, Karsilama 4, Women's Karsilama 3, Women's Karsilama 4, etc... And they are usually played and danced in the same ascending order as listed here.

Sirto

Sirtos are one of the most liked folk dances and music in Cyprus. Sirto comes from the Greek Syrtos. However, it is easy to also observe the Turkish motives in the ones used in Cyprus. Even Ottoman Sultans liked very much this Greek music form and composed songs in that form. The most popular non-anonymous example is the Hicaz Sirto of 32nd Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz, which is known in North Cyprus among Turkish Cypriots as Aziziye Sirto. Similarly it is known (played and danced) in the South Cyprus among Greek Cypriots as Aziziyes Syrtos. This is quite normal taking into consideration that the two communities lived together for a very long time in Cyprus history. In some parts of sirtos pairs of dancers hold a handkerchief from its two sides as in karsilamas. When one of the dancers starts making skillful movements the other stops dancing and keeps holding the handkerchief firmly so that his friend will not fall down. Seherli Sirtosu, Aziziye Sirto, Iskele Sirtosu, Azize, Kina Sirtosu, etc, are the most popular sirtos...

Zeybek

Zeybeks are relatively slow and have more swaggering attitude than other dances. They represent the determination, braveness and strength of the males. Zeybeks' origin is known to be Turkish. They have also been used by Greeks. Greek Cypriots call it "Zeybekikos" and Rhodos Greeks call it "Turkikos". They are very popular in Western and Central Anatolia. In zeybeks which have lyrics, the parts with lyrics are not danced. Cyprus Zeybeks are relatively faster. Abdal Zeybegi, Sarhos Zeybegi, Kibris Zeybegi, Iskele Zeybegi are the most popular zeybeks...

Ciftetelli and Arabiye

Ciftetellis and Arabiyes are free dance forms danced by females. Female dancers swing their heads, shake their shoulders and chests, swing their bellies and hips, etc, mostly to attract males. Some examples are Ciftetelli, Bahriye Ciftetellisi, Mevlana, Arabiye 1, Arabiye 2, etc...

Topical Dances

These are the dramatic dances with some themes from daily life or special events. They can be categorized into 5 groups according to their themes: animal motions and behaviors, daily and special human activities, male-female relations, nature facts and events, fights and battles with or without guns. Music of many of these dances contain lyrics. The significance of these lyrics is to strengthen the effect of the movements in the dances. These dances enable skillful dancers to illustrate interesting aspects of the corresponding themes. Orak, Kozan, Kartal, Topal, Degirmenci, Nisan, etc, are the most popular examples in this category...

Some examples Topical Dances:

Orak: Orak means sickle in Turkish. This dance is about harvesting time. Farmer men use their sickles to harvest. Their women also help them. The women give water (in jugs) to thirsty and tired men. Some of the men, when they become vigorous or when they want to show off, start to show their expertise in using their sickles. They throw up and catch their sickles repeatedly, use two sickles simultaneously for harvesting, etc...

Kozan: This is danced with a water jug in "henna nights" (a part of wedding ceremonies), after the bride's hand has been put henna. At the end of this dance which is danced by only females, the bride brakes the jug by throwing it to the ground. The broken jug symbolizes an everlasting happiness. Another belief is that the pieces of this broken jug (and the coins and sweets put a-priori inside the jug) which spread on the ground when the jug is broken symbolize fertility.

Kartal: Kartal means eagle in Turkish. This dance is about the struggle of an eagle not to let his prey be seized by other eagles.

Topal: Topal means lamed in Turkish. This dance is about the struggle of a lamed bridegroom candidate with his "would be" father-in-law who does not like him as a husband for his daughter even though he is also lamed.



I used to actually dance in a group at weddings, balls, festivals and so on...was a great time of my youth :)


All I can say is....Yup, yup, yup, yup and yup!!

They all sound pretty much the same, and the Greek name for cifte telli, is tsiftetelli in Greek, it's basically a form of belly dancing! (although I'm sure you know that... :wink: )

The dance that the females dance with the water jugs, is kinda of like a story in dance for the Greek Cypriots (although it could also be for the the Turkish Cypriots..)...it's about (I believe, although i could be slightly wrong...) the young girls going to collect water, when the men come along and distract them, then a women, because of the distraction drops her water jug, or it might be the man that knocks it our of her hands, I've never really been quite sure...she gets upset, then he consoles her, and they dance together, the end! (See, I told you it was like a story! :))

Pretty much all the dancing is danced at weddings, there is one for example where the 'Koumbari' take it in terns to Dance with the groom. They dance opposite each other, each holding one end of a scarf...Then after they've danced together for a bit, the groom tends to half kneel and clap, whist the koumparo, takes it away.....kicks, flicks, sometimes he'll hold onto the scarf with the Groom to do a particularly hard move....it can get quite acrobatic, but the whole time keeping with the Syrto (I believe) rythem.

What general rythem is the Cyprus zeymek? Is it like a step, step, step stamp hop hop rythem? (I believe this is the Kypriako Zembekiko rythem, although I could be wrong....)

I really love, both Greek and Cypriot dances (and I'm sure I'd love Turkish dances as well...it looks to me like Greek and Turkish dances are either pretty much exaclty the same, or a variation of each other...:)), and I dacne them at any opportunity I get, I guess that's why I really enjoy weddings! :)
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Postby Kartal_Aetos » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:20 am

yeh the cyprus zeybek is along those lines sumwhere...

as for the water jugs dance, yes, thats another turkish dance...its the same story...i forgot its name but the kozan is not that one...Kozan is just women...

Im sure you do really enjoy weddings...who doesn't? apart from the fact that theres great music and dancing, its a joyous occasion for two families :)

I usually try and stay off the dancefloor but every1 always forces me up...then the trick is getting me off...lol...but try telling a TC you wont dance with them...they get so offended...they will have your head if you dont...lol

one day we'll go wedding crashing together so we can dance together :) hehe
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Postby Natty » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:31 am

Kartal_Aetos wrote:yeh the cyprus zeybek is along those lines sumwhere...

as for the water jugs dance, yes, thats another turkish dance...its the same story...i forgot its name but the kozan is not that one...Kozan is just women...

Im sure you do really enjoy weddings...who doesn't? apart from the fact that theres great music and dancing, its a joyous occasion for two families :)

I usually try and stay off the dancefloor but every1 always forces me up...then the trick is getting me off...lol...but try telling a TC you wont dance with them...they get so offended...they will have your head if you dont...lol

one day we'll go wedding crashing together so we can dance together :) hehe


Lol, it's the same with Greek Cypriots, as far as there concerned, as long as there's music, you have to dance! No excuse! (Although my cousin always tries to find one! ) :D

I'd really love to go 'Wedding crashing' with you! I'm always suggesting it to my cousin, but she says she'd feel rude.. :roll: ...but, hey were Cypriots! Who cares! If there's an opportunity to go, do some dancing, and have some fun, take it I say! (As I'm sure all Cypriots would say!) :wink: :lol:
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Postby Kartal_Aetos » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:36 am

whats there not to like...dancing, drinking, and kleftico...lol
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Postby Natty » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:05 am

Kartal_Aetos wrote:whats there not to like...dancing, drinking, and kleftico...lol


Exactly! :D
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Postby Natty » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:13 am

Kozan: This is danced with a water jug in "henna nights" (a part of wedding ceremonies), after the bride's hand has been put henna. At the end of this dance which is danced by only females, the bride brakes the jug by throwing it to the ground. The broken jug symbolizes an everlasting happiness. Another belief is that the pieces of this broken jug (and the coins and sweets put a-priori inside the jug) which spread on the ground when the jug is broken symbolize fertility.


I like the sound of this dance (I find all things that have a 'Symbolic meaning' really interesting! :)). I don't know whether we have something similar, I know there a couple wedding dances, that aren't really performed these days (They used to be performed more in the days when wedding's used to last for a week, just hearings my Grandmother talking about her wedding makes me so sad that weddings have been shortened..), like the 'Bed dance' for example...

I'd love to know what form the dance takes, what rythem for example...I like the sound of Breaking the jug! :D
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