Cypriot dances

CYPRIOT DANCES Changes in Cypriot life occurred but slowly between the first years of the century and the Second World War, they gained pace with Independence in 1960, and became quite abrupt after the Turkish invasion of 1974. On the traditionally... More

CYPRIOT DANCES
Changes in Cypriot life occurred but slowly between the first years of the century and the Second
World War, they gained pace with Independence in 1960, and became quite abrupt after the Turkish
invasion of 1974. On the traditionally ritualistic form of the Cypriot dance they have had a wholly
negative effect.
Cypriot men used to dance mostly during wedding festivities and at various junkets on high days and
holidays, but also in coffee-houses in the evenings, on threshing-floors, and wherever men gathered
together. Social convention restricted occasions when women danced mainly to weddings.
In the period we are considering, roughly from 1910 to the seventies, the basic dance of both men and
women was the "kartchilamas" performed by a confronted pair of dancers. The "kartchilamas" consists
of a series of dances that vary slightly according to the performers, the locality, or the era. These
dances are essentially parts of a whole, or suite, the parts being known as the "k Less