That's what sailing is, a dance, and your partner is the sea. And with the sea you never take liberties. You ask her, you don't tell her. You have to remember always that she's the leader, not you. You and your boat are dancing to her tune.
― Michael Morpurgo, Alone on a Wide Wide Sea
This week's dance, Paraliakós, is from Greece. Unlike most of the dances featured during the past few months, this one is fairly easy.
The music for Paraliakos reminds me of riding in a boat rocking gently on the waves. I've never been on a sailboat but have had a bit of experience paddling canoes and kayaks. The boat mentioned in the song is a craft used for fishing in the Greek islands (if you listen closely you'll hear the song in the background, and also see the men sailing in a vrastsera).
The lyrics of the song describe a man sailing his boat out to sea. He mentions the beauty of the scenery and the danger of the oncoming storm.
The dance goes very well with the music. The swaying part reminds me of a boat on the water. In the next video there is a short teach by Lee Otterholt. You can easily learn the dance by watching.
This dance is very popular in our group and requested frequently.
The bonus video also has a Greek theme, and if you are a regular reader of The Alien Diaries, you have probably seen it before: Miss Piggy's Never on Sunday. It's a blast with dancing pigs, flying plates and gunshots!
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
Beethoven With a Bulgarian Accent; Mozart Goes Greek
The "Flavors" of Greek Syrtos
Some Fun for April Fool's Day
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
