The Hasapiko

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Category: Music

Published on Thursday, 19 November 2020 08:38

Welcome back on Chiosradio.gr. In today’s episode of Culture, I want to tell you a little bit more about one of the most famous traditional dances in Greece, the Hasapiko.

The Hasapiko originated in Constantinople in the middle ages. Its name comes from the Greek word hasapis which means “butcher” in english. The dance originated in the Middle Ages as a battle dance with swords performed by the butcher’s guild, which adopted it from the military. The Ηasapiko was initially associated with seamen and ports, as well as urban areas, where it was most famous.

The Hasapiko has a very specail style compared to other volk dances. It has to be performed by two or more dancers and there is no predetermined combination of steps. Over the time some basic moves have been established which are now randomly combined by the dancers during the performance.  Therefore, synchronization plays an important role. All the dancers must perform the same steps in the same rhythm in order to provide the audience a good result and presentation. Also, Hasapiko can be danced slow but also fast. So, its basic meter is 2/4 but you can play it with a 4/4 meter too. The accompanying music is traditionally played on the bouzouki or a long-necked version of this instrument known as the baglamas together with the violin or the santouri.

An interesting fact about the dance is also that it inspired Michael Cacoyannis for his movie „Sorba the Greek “. There is one scene in the end, where Alexis Sorbas dances a dance, made up by Cacoyannis for the movie. For this dance he combined the Hasapiko and another famous traditional Greek dance called Hasaposerviko. This invented dance got famous under the name “Sirtaki” and is today probably the most known Greek dance who often replaces the Hasapiko in touristic regions.