Friday, April 15, 2016

LIVE from Thessaloniki: Dances of Thrace!

Well, not exactly live, no WiFi there...But a few hours ago, I attended the 34th ‎Festival of Traditional Dances & Music at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Student Center. It's a week-long event, with a different area featured each night -- tonight dances from Thrace (the farthest NE area of Greece, part of which is now within the borders of modern Turkey and once home to many Greeks who became refugees when booted from there during the infamous 1920-22 Exchange of Populations). 

My grandfather's mother came to Greece from Skopo w/4 kids in 1920, her husband Efstathios having been killed by the Turks. Seems like Papou Xanthoulis Xanthopoulos left first around 1915, during what is known as "The Armenian Genocide" (not limited to Armenians). He went to Naousa and married my Yiayia Pareskevoula in 1916 -- and the rest is history. 

Here are some photos from the performance by the Eastern Thrace dance troupe from Lakoma Halkidhikis...note the women upper right, one Yiayia was at least 80 years-old. Opa!‎

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.




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