A number of events, under the general title “Dialogues,” took place at the Festival of Moni Lazariston. Their common aim was to highlight the similarities, exchanges and interactions between the Greek folk culture and that of its neighbors to the east, west and the Balkans. The events were divided into five different units, presented over five days.
5th of July
In the first unit, titled “Bridges of the Ionian Sea” the “Singers of Zante” group presented folk songs, serenades and arias, while the group “Arakne Mediterranea,” from the Greek-speaking villages of Apulia – Salento, danced and sang the ritual dance “tarantela – pichica” and other traditional songs and serenades (“marinati”).
7th of July
The following evening, titled “From the Black Sea”, Pontiac dance groups from Athens and Istanbul met in a vigorous dance “dialogue” to the rhythms of pyrrhic, tic and kotsari.
9th of July
The third event, “Voices from Petra”, attempted to identify the different styles of polyphony that run through western Balkans and is still present today in Epirus and Albania. Groups of polyphonic musicians from both regions demonstrated their techniques in a “dialogue” that spanned centuries.
11th of July
The fourth event, titled “Karagiozis and Karagoz”, concerned the popular shadow theatre that exists on both sides of Aegean, with emphasis on the popular songs and dances that accompany it. The Greek Karagiozis character and his Turkish counterpart met on stage to sing songs from the folk music tradition of Istanbul and Smyrna.
12th of July
“Dialogues” ended with the event “The ways of Bagpipes”. Bagpipers from Greece (Macedonia and Thrace) and Bulgaria presented representative examples of music and improvised together. At the same time, vocal groups showed how the technique and the “color” of the instrument’s sound have influenced traditional songs, while dance groups highlighted the relationship between the instrument and the dance.
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