DANCING DIARYDANCING DIARYA diary full of dancing, music and A diary full of dancing, music and

fun of different culturesfun of different cultures

The beginning of the project

The project began as a co-operation between two primary schools of

Greece and Slovenia out of the need for something new, funny and

motivating for the children.

Recording our dances…

After agreement with our physical education teacher we recorded two of the most known Greek traditional dances, “Kalamatianos” and “Tsamikos”. The kids already knew them since last year…

Recording “Tsamiko”…

Eight-year-old pupils of two D’ classes took part in this phase.

…and “Kalamatiano”

And after recording our dances…

We watched the Slovenian dances…All the kids loved to watch the Slovenian dances by kids of about their age again and again.The music sounded familiar to them and they were pleased to discover that a different culture was not that distant after all.

Watching “Rašpla”…

Watching “Ob bistrem potočku je mlin”…

Slovenian dancing lessons…

We devoted about 10’ at the end of each English lesson to watch and try to learn the Slovenian dances. This lasted for about 6-7 teaching hours. It was fun but difficult as well.

Difficulties:

The main difficulty was that we had to rehearse inside the classroom in a very limited space. We couldn’t do this in the hall as the music would be annoying for those having a lesson, or the physical education teacher might be using the place at the same time.

…More difficulties

When we eventually managed to learn two of the dances, we couldn’t videotape them because of the weather. It kept raining everyday and we couln’t use the hall to perform as all the pupils of the school were staying inside during breaks and physical education lessons because of the rain.

Phew! we did it!!

So you can watch us Greek pupils dancing “Rašpla” and “Ob bistrem potočku je mlin”. We really had a lot of fun. My pupils still ask me in each lesson: “Miss, will we dance today?” (We never managed to dance “Kovtre šivat” though. It seemed so easy but in the end of the queue there was always a “traffic”!)

Slovenia by Greece 1: Rašpla

Slovenia by Greece 2: Ob bistrem potočku je mlin

“The end”

So, somewhere here is the end of the story. But diaries rarery have an end. They usually go on and on… We hope that you and your pupils will consider this project as a trigger to learn more about the Greek music, culture and language and we will do the same for Slovenia. Hope our diaries meet some day again… Greetings from Patras-Greece!!!