I remember my first year ever going to FDF
with my dance group. It was 1990, I
was eight years old, and I remember the
beautiful Pacific Northwest was covered in
snow that February. FDF that year was
in my hometown of Seattle, Washington- not
an area of the country that gets the honor
of hosting a Folk Dance Festival very often
(probably in part because of the way the
weather was behaving that day…). My
group, Junior Levendya, won fourth place in
Advanced Primary that year. Not bad
for a first experience of FDF, I thought,
and there would be many more experiences to
come. Through many blessings from
above, not to mention hard work by my dad,
my family and I got to attend every FDF
after that (except one) for the next
fourteen years! Each one was an
unforgettable experience.
On
several occasions I have asked myself, what
is it about Greek folk dancing that I love
so much? For that matter, what is it
about Greek folk dancing that we all love so
much? Have you seen how quickly an
exhibit hall in Ontario will fill up with
dancing once a Greek folk band starts
playing there? It doesn’t even
matter if the music is Cretan, Thracian,
Macedonian, Pontic, we love it! And
why do we love it? That’s easy-
because dancing expresses what’s going on
inside our soul. When we’re alone
and sad, we’re not very inclined to dance,
are we? But around tons of our friends
feeling joy and love, we can dance all night
long (and many of us do!)!
If you open your Bible to the Old Testament
(and we should), you’ll read many verses
about dancing as an expression of joy.
But even more than that, you’ll see dance
as an expression of praise to God.
King David danced around the Ark of the
Covenant- the sacred container where the
Hebrews kept many holy items that symbolized
God’s love for them. (2 Kingdoms 6:5)
Psalm 149 says “Praise His name with the
dance,” (v.3) and there are others.
When you read these, you may think, “What
does God have to do with Greek dancing?”
He has plenty to do with Greek dancing.
Look at how we dance the majority of our
dances- holding hands as one body. If
one person moves off step, the whole line is
affected, just like in life. Have you
ever tried holding your hands up by
yourself? Holding hands altogether is
a lot easier, just like anything in life we
do together. Let’s look at the
bigger picture, too- most of these dances
came from the celebration of joyful events,
like weddings, baptisms, and major feast
days, and as your directors can tell you,
even the harvest seasons! Dancing is
something beautiful that God has created us
to love!
FDF is such an amazing experience, and we
can often get swept away in the rush of
emotion and enthusiasm of the whole weekend
that sometimes we may miss what the key
component of the festival is: that we come
as faith communities and as part of a
greater faith community. Remembering
this is how our dancing is fulfilled.
At my first FDF in 1990, I didn’t come as
a member of “Junior Levendya, from
Seattle.” I came as a member of
“Junior Levendya, from the Church of the
Assumption, in Seattle.” Let’s
hold closely to this beautiful part of our
faith. And let’s always remember to
“Praise His name with the dance,” so
that we may know true fulfillment as we
continue the dance of life.
