An original and well-founded study on dance therapy and the role of traditional dance in Greek festivals as a form of healing and cultural expression.
The idea that someone can undergo therapy through dance may sound strange. On one hand, therapy seems serious; on the other, dance is something joyful and carefree. Could they really coexist?
In modern times, the word therapy refers to a medical term. However, in the past, it was a concept embedded in everyday life and experienced through simple things, like dance. In many regions of Greece, they would say "therapavtka" when the dance ended.
But what are the processes that lead to this therapy? Through the ethnographic example of the festival in Malandrino Fokida, this book takes us on a journey into Greek traditional dance therapy, which develops spontaneously and is experienced collectively: in unification, synchronization, vitality, expression, and the joy born from the circle of dance.
"For the locals, dance was never therapy. It was a way to exist. A marker of identity, memory, and belonging. Therapy, simply, followed."
