“Where are you from?” she asks… “From Greece” I answer… “You Greeks… dance like you have music inside you. Do you have anything similar as music or dance?” she asks… and my mind races directly to my other favorite dance.
Zeimpekiko.
A dance that like Tango does not have sequences… does not have a choreography… it’s pure improvisation… a dance that is danced usually by men… dancing alone… in a small circle… while the rest are accompanied by clapping their hands. A dance that much like Tango is an expression of deep, sometimes even painful love… pride… freedom… nostalgia… and whatever else anyone wants to express.
This dance… I have learned only by imitation… watching my father (and many other people in all kinds of celebrations and nightlife exits) dancing to it.
Apart from dancing alone the rest is more or less similar to Tango… or many other dances around the world. There is a song… a beat… a melody… maybe a lyric…and then there is you. Your heart and your soul are directed by the music to move your body and make it one more element in this magic ephemeral expression of some deep and maybe sometimes dark and unknown feeling.
Maybe that’s why I loved Tango. It’s like Zeimpekiko for two… a Zeimpekiko in an embrace with another person!
So tonight’s Goodnight Tango is not a Tango… it’s a zeimpekiko… actually I would dare to say it’s the definition of Zeimpekiko. If you ask a Greek person to sing you a Zeimpekiko song… I bet most of them will sing this.
Enjoy!
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