3RD CHILDREN FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF GREEK DANCE ARCHIVES AND
IOV-NGO UNESCO
SUNDAY, 14 JUNE, KOZIANI


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CULTURAL AND FOLKLORE UNION THE KOZIANI

                               In special relations with GREEK DANCE ARCHIVES

At the beginning of the year 2004, a group of friends decided to establish a new folklore union that will be based in the city of Kozani, Greece. The name given to this new union was “Cultural and Folklore Union The Koziani”. Aim of “The Koziani” union is to reserve, reveal and continue to transfer to the next generations the tradition and the culture of the Kozani city and of the West Macedonia region in general.

          From the early beginning, a Greek folklore dancing team was created aiming, among others, to participate to the affluent festivals organized in all over the Greek territory and in the next step to build close relationships with relevant groups in all over the world.

It is characteristic that the first activity was the hospitality of the union “Amalia”, which was established by the Greek emigrants, inhibit in the German city Haagen. In common with the “Amalia” union many performances was given to various cities of the Kozani prefecture region.

Since September 2005, “Koziani” union obtained its legal form and started an intense activity to the cultural happenings of the West Macedonia area. Today, “Koziani” has four different dancing groups; two of them are constituted by adults and count in total 80 members, and the rest two are constituted by teenagers and childrens and count in total 40 members. Future plans are the set up of more groups that will be involved with others parts of the rich Greek culture inheritance. It is worthy to mention that are active in parallel, a group of learning Byzantine music since September 2006 and the most important a theater group (in local idiom) since 2007.

The wardrobe of the “Koziani” includes dressing suits for all the dancing groups (adults, teenagers and childish). Especially, for the performance groups we have dressing suits from the Kozani’s region as also the traditional Macedonian suit from the “Roumlouki” area (for the women) and from “Episkopi Naousa” area (for the men).

The dancing performance groups have a gamut that incorporates the whole Macedonia as also the Thrace regions. It is noticeable and most interest that the unique in the Greece custom, the “Fanos” (all the people are dancing and signing around a fireplace), which is taken place during the carnival period, can be presented by our union.

Until today, our dancing performance groups have participated in plenty of events and festivals all over Greece, receiving positives comments and many distinctions. Additionally, the union participated in a lot of local television productions for folklore themes.

   “Koziani” organizes a remarkable number of repeated events every year (like yearly ball, New Year’s member meeting, celebration of Shrove Monday, children’s dancing festival in each May, seminars for Greek traditional dances etc). In parallel, a spring folklore event under the name “Now May, now freshness, now the summer”, is organized every May presenting the spring habits of the Kozani city and of the nearby villages.    

The driving force for the successfully organization of the above mentioned activities and the continuation of a non-profit union is the eagerness, the desire and the passion of all the “Koziani’s” members. With their volunteer efforts, the chamber of “Koziani” does not stop to extent the range of activities and involvements. Our common point is the conservation of our regional traditions and the cultural development through the reservation of our culture and the propagation to the next generations.

We are open to any kind of cooperation in order to reveal and show the Greece’s affluent cultural inheritance through the music, dance and customs presentation.