If you have just read the page about the Kalh Kardia bar, we are selling out now and showing you what the tourists come here for. No disrespect to them, but these dancers, singers and musicians are using Greek, not Cretan, material, and the entertainment is a generalised form of very modern Greek music which is based on Western rhythms and melodies. Having said that, they are very talented, and the evening can be very enjoyable, but not for the purists!
This Greek Night took place in our resort, in a courtyard behind one of the restaurants. It was peopled mainly by Eastern Europeans apart from us. We had deliberately avoided the tour operator's version of it, in order to get away from the other English staying at the apartments. Entry was by ticket, and once in, everything was free. The food was wonderful - Greek - and wine, water and cola were flowing freely...
Note the clothes the dancers are wearing. The traditional Cretan man, who is depicted on the People page, wears black boots, beige trousers, black shirt and a headband with tassels hanging from it. These tassels represent tear drops, meant to represent the tears shed when the Germans invaded Crete during the Second World War, and killed all the men from many villages. Some hid deep in the mountains to survive, but every family lost several men, and they haven't got over it. The people below are in generic Greek dress therefore.
The dancing itself, not captured very well here, is quite energetic, with leaps and spins, containing elements of Russian, Arab and Alpine dancing, very varied.
Sorry about the quality of some of these photos, but they did move fast. Performers like these must be super-fit to sing and dance so energetically. They probably move on every night to do this performance, and make a living thus.
Below, the band. On the right, a man playing the bazouki, which is like a large mandolin, but strung and pitched quite differently from its older relative the Cretan lauoto. On the left, sorry but it's a tourist cop-out, a Roland and a Korg churning out backing tracks.
The two people below were the soloists, singing popular Greek songs, some recognisable, some not, in Greek
Now we've eaten and had a few drinks, it's our turn. The dancers circulated and yanked people from the crowd, not listening to protests, to learn their dancing and do their gymnastic tricks.
Below, Alun is captivated by the young Greek lady who drags him out to do Zorba's dance in a kind of conga, going right round the venue, out across the coast road, which is thankfully quiet at this time of night, round a telegraph pole and back in along the long drive to the courtyard. The dance rhythm, in common with traditional Greek and Cretan tempos, was five beats to the bar, being four steps and then a change of feet and direction. Some rhythms might have 7, 9 or 13 beats to the bar, always the last beat being a rest. If you have traditional Western European musical training, forget it for this! It's easy when you've had some wine or raki though!
The Greeks also seem to have a version of the Hokey Cokey, and here they are nearly landing in a heap as you do...
Now it's slow dance time, and Alun has an Eastern European dance partner. What's "slow, slow, quick, quick slow" in Czech?
