Health Benefits of Dancing

Vatican Saying 52 mentions dance (friendship dances around the world)...

I just found this is a good article, about the health benefits: https://welldoing.org/article/dancin…tes-vagus-nerve

About the Greek dance "Syrto":

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Syrtó (pronounced seer-TOH). The name translates literally as “to pull”, but more accurately as “to lead”. It’s considered the most ancient of Greek dances, going back possibly 2500 years. Syrtó is at its heart simply walking to a slow, quick quick rhythm. If a slow step is two beats long, and a quick step is one beat, then Slow, Quick Quick, (or S,Q,Q,) would be 4 beats (2+1+1). One Syrtó dance is 4 sets of S,Q,Q, 12 steps (16 beats) in total.

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Also the Kalamatianos:

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The Kalamatianós (Modern Greek Συρτός Καλαματιανός Syrtós Kalamatianós, but usually only called Καλαματιανός Kalamatianós) is one of the best-known dances of Greece. It is a popular Greek folk dance throughout Greece, Cyprus and internationally and is often performed at many social gatherings worldwide. As is the case with most Greek folk dances, it is danced in chain with a counterclockwise rotation, the dancers holding hands.

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The roots of the Kalamatianos can be found in antiquity. Homer, in the Iliad, describes three performances made around the spear of Achilles that depict a dance in an open circle. The ancient Spartans had a dance called ὅρμος hórmos, which was a syrto-style dance described in detail by Xenophon where a woman led a male into dance using a handkerchief. Lucian states that the hórmos dance was performed in an open circle and was done by young men and women. The men would dance vigorously while the women danced with modest movements.^[1]

In the 19th century, this dance was called Συρτός ὁ Πελοποννήσιος Syrtós ho Peloponnḗsios. It is believed to have acquired the name kalamatianos from the town of Kalamata in southern Greece; most Greek dances are commonly named after the villages or areas from which they are considered to have originated.^[2]

Kalamatiano songs are many and popular – some of the more traditional kalamatiano songs are Samiotissa (The girl from Samos), Mandili Kalamatiano (Kerchief from Kalamata), Milo Mou Kokkino (My Red Apple), To Papaki (The Duckling), Mou Pariggile To Aidoni (The Nightingale sent me a message), Ola Ta Poulakia (All Birds), Palamakia (Clapping) and more. An especially haunting example of the kalamatianos, Mekapses Yitonissa (Μέκαψες Γειτόνισσα), was recorded for the National Geographic Society's groundbreaking Music of Greece album, released in 1968.

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I am not of Greek origin, however I've found some fun YouTube videos on how to dance the Kalamatianós. And I started putting together a dance chart for the footwork (this is yet another "work-in-progress" (only half of the steps completed) and which may need tweeking):

Here are two videos for learning the dance:

Here is a Youtube of the Kalamatianos dance being done in a circle. Watch the woman dressed in all white, because her footwork looks correct whereas some of the others are a bit muddled. I am thinking that this would be fun to do at an in-person Twentieth, after a potluck ).

In this video, you can see the kalamatianos for a brief segment starting at 2:40 ...(word of caution that the music is a bit somber).