This is Phil learning how to dance the pentozal

I am marrying a Greek Guy who doesn’t know how to Greek Dance…what am I doing. When I first met Phil I was in shock that he didn’t know one Greek dance, not even the most common of dances the kalamatiano. His church St. Demetrios Rocky River did not a have a Greek dance troupe when he was growing up so he did not learn at a young age. At different social dances Phil wasn’t much of a dancer so he just never cared to learn. My experience with Greek dance was much different. Luckily I grew up in a community, St. Haralambos Canton, in which their Greek dance troupe is their pride and joy. I started dancing for the St. Haralambos Hellenic Dancers when I was 5 years old. The group was founded by Eleni Paxos and it is run together with her two daughters Joanna and Maria. From when I was 5 to till when I was around 23, being a Hellenic Dancer was a huge part of my life. I got to travel the country, learn a bunch of dances with my friends, make some the best memories ever, and if wasn’t for being a Hellenic Dancer I would have never left this country (the first time I went to Canada and Greece were both with the dancers). My last performance with the Hellenic Dancers also played a significant role in Phil and I’s relationship. I last performed at the Cleveland Cavs halftime show at the Q and it was the same weekend Phil asked me to be his girlfriend. Phil had already had planned on going to the game with his family and watching me perform, even though he couldn’t tell which one was me. My mom also solely came to the game to try to get her way to meet Phil, I vetoed that real quickly.  Here is the video of that performance.

I first taught Phil how to Greek dance a couple of years ago. The only way Phil listened to me is because I bribed him. If he learned how to dance the kalamatiano he could watch football. He learned the dance very quickly due to his incentive. It also did not hurt that I kept telling him that I lead and perfected this dance at age 5. So my goal for our wedding was to Phil be comfortable with Greek dancing and learn more dances so he can dance with me. I first started with the kalamatiano, then the went onto the pentozali, and then the ikariotiko. It is much harder to teach all the dances than I thought. I had taught some of them previously but teaching Phil all of the dances was different for some reason. Phil thought that he could tell me how to teach the steps without knowing what the steps were. He was a difficult student, but still my favorite.  Be sure to check out Phil’s new dance skills at the wedding.