The FDF is a Greek Orthodox Youth Ministry under the auspices of the Diocese of San Francisco of the Greek Archdiocese of America. Our primary purpose is to bring youth together in Christian fellowship through Greek folk dance and the related folk arts. Much of our success is due to the unwavering support of His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony.
Since 1976, the FDF has hosted a folk dance competition (also referred to as the Festival in this article) serving primarily the parishes in the Western Diocese but also open to dance groups outside the Diocese. Groups from Denver, New Jersey, Florida and Canada have participated in past FDF festivals. Recently the event was expanded to include choral competition. An article describing some of the history and future plans of the FDF entitled FDF Coming of Age was recently published in two Greek-American newspapers.
In 2002, 50 groups in eight classifications competed for awards in Spokane, Washington. Although it was a little nippy, no snow was on the ground and we had three days of glorious sunshine. Both semi-final and final rounds were held in the beautiful Spokane Opera House and participants danced the nights away with Fotia, Ziyia as well as musicians from Karpathos, Hios, Crete & Pontos.
Since 1990, the FDF has sponsored the FDF Symposium. The event is a folk dance weekend where dancers and directors can come together and share their common enthusiasm for their culture and learn new dance material from qualified dance instructors. In addition, various workshops are offered in song, musical instruments, costume and stage presentation/choreography. The most recent seminar was in Modesto in Ocotber 2001.
The FDF Resource Center offers books, records, CDs and video resources concerning Greek folk dance, costume, music and folklore that are not readily available in America and must be purchased from Greece. The FDF Resource Center is set up at each FDF Symposium and at the annual Festival. For those of you who would like to attend a dance seminar in Greece, please consult the Summer Seminars in Greece list.
The FDF also offers three scholarships. The FDF Memorial Scholarships for outstanding participation in FDF dance groups and the life of the church are presented at the Awards Banquet at each FDF. The FDF Dance Scholarship to Greece is offered to directors who have participated in past FDF Festivals. Six sets of directors have received the scholarships:
Videos from their trip (Video List) are available to FDF directors for the cost of a blank video tape and postage; they are also for sale to the general public. For a copy of the videos and for FDF directors who would like to apply for the Scholarship, please contact Charlie Kyriacou ChKyriacou@aol.com
The third is the FDF Musical Apprenticeship Scholarship. Scholarship recipients are paired with Greek Folk musicians to learn to play traditional instruments such as the clarinet, gaida, zourna, laouto, daouli, etc. The FDF98 Musical Apprenticeship Scholarship recipients can be seen at 1998 FDF Scholarships Awarded. The FDF99 Musical Apprenticeship Scholarship recipients can be seen at 1999 FDF Scholarships Awarded.
The FDF has been featured in a number of publications such as the Orthodox Observer in 1999, Odyssey Magazine, the GreekAmerican Magazine (376K; takes a couple of minutes to download) and the Orthodox Observer in 2000. In addition, the Ecumenical Patriarch held a Youth Conference in the summer of 2000 and Achilleas Fourakis from Marin County was featured in the Orthodox Observer.
There are other Greek and Greek Folk Dance sites all around the web. Here are a few we thought you might find interesting:
Asteria Dancing Group
http://www.vic.com/asteria/
Cypriot Folk Dances
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~cyprus/dance.html
Dora Stratou Theatre
http://users.hol.gr/~grdance
Greek
American Folklore Society
http://www.gafs.org/
Greek Dancing Through
The Centuries
http://firstnethou.com/annam/dancehis.html
Greek Folk Dance Resource Manual
http://www.filetron.com/Grkmanual/
Hellas List Home Page
http://velox.stanford.edu/hellas/root.html
Hellenic Dance
Info Page
http://www.law.uc.edu/homepages/christtp/dance2.html
Hellenic Dancers of
St. Louis
http://www.erl.wustl.edu/users/mnk/dancers.html
Hellenic Electronics Center (HEC)
http://www.Greece.org
Holy Trinity Greek Folk Dance of Portland, Oregon
http://www.geocities.com/greekdance
Kyklos Hellenic Performing and Literary Arts Group of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
http://www.kyklosonline.com
La Troupe
Folklorique Grecque Syrtaki
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~a_darsa/latroupe/latroupe.html
Minoan Dancers
http://www.minoans.com
St.
Sophia Cathedral, Los Angeles, California
http://www.stsophia.org
Terpsichore Hellenic Folklore Society
http://www.minoans.com
Vryonis
Center for the Study of Hellenism
http://www.glavx.org
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