For the first time ever, a special dance took place at the Greek Orthodox Church Hall of Saint Demetrios in Queanbeyan to celebrate the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.
As one of the biggest feast days on the Greek Orthodox calendar, the event held by the Canberra Association of Pontos ‘Trapezounta’ paid tribute to the Monastery of Panagia Soumela in Pontos.
Taking place on Saturday, 31 August at 6.30pm, the inaugural event welcomed more than 120 people from Canberra, Queanbeyan, Sydney and surrounds for a night of food, music, dance, and culture.
In attendance were many distinguished guests including the Ambassador of Greece to Australia, Stavros Venizelos; the High Commissioner of the Republic of Cyprus to Australia, Antonis Sammoutis; Military Attache of the Greek Embassy, Colonel Ioannis Fasianos; Father Petros Kipouros of Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Kingston; Hellenic Club of Canberra director, John Loukadellis.
The event featured speeches followed by plenty of entertainment. Live music was performed by Pontian musicians from Canberra and Sydney, including Kyriakos Fotiadis (lyra and vocals), Adamos Neou (lyra), and Prodromos Moysiadis and Peter Tsenkas (daouli).
Audiences were also treated to a performance by the Canberra Hellenic Dancers Atalanti group, who showcased a series of Pontian dances which were a crowd favourite.
Throughout the night, people indulged in a plate of delicious Greek food including souvlakia, pites, tzatziki and salads. People later joined the dance floor for some traditional Pontian dancing.
Canberra Association of Pontos ‘Trapezounta’ President Angie Triandafillou told The Greek Herald the night was about preserving Pontian culture.
“We are trying to keep our culture, our dance and our history alive,” Angie said.
“We’re still struggling for genocide recognition of the Pontic Greeks and the Christians of Asia Minor too.
“This event is a way of bringing everyone together and sharing our rich history, and I think all of us Greeks should join forces and support each other’s events.”
Vice President of the Association, Theodore Merkoureas said he felt proud to see so many people attend.
“It’s so nice to see people from all different regions of Greece get involved and support the association,” Theodore said.
“In Canberra, we don’t have too many dances, so we really want to try and hold a ‘dekapentavgousto’ dance every year if we can as it’s such a big holiday that we should be celebrating.”
Members of the Canberra Greek community also hoping to see the event return.
“I think it’s so special that we have events like this, because we’re getting people of all ages coming together and dancing and supporting one another,” Hellenic Youth Club Secretary Connie Kambouris said.
Canberra Hellenic Dancer Felicity Triantafillopoulos added, “It was just such a rewarding experience to be able to perform tonight and embrace the Pontian culture. I really love dancing Pontian, it’s just so invigorating.”
