Every year, the Greek Community of Melbourne is holding the very successful Antipodes Festival, closing off Lonsdale Street in Melbourne. Many thousands of people attend the event and there is normally a renouned performer from Greece visiting this Festival and performing.
This year’s event started with the Karyatides dance, organised by Mr Sotiris Sotiriou and the Pegasus Dance Academy. Twelve students from Zenon Greek School took part, holding Olympic torches and dancing the circle dance to the appropriate Karyatides music.
The Greek term karyatides literally means “maidens of Karyai“, an ancient town on the Peloponnese. Karyai had a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: “As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants”. – Wikipedia
The students who participated dressed as Karyatides are-
Ariah Dimokranitis
Άρια Δημοκρανίτη
Jordania Kouspos
Ιορδανία Κούσπου
Jessica Nenos
Ναυσικά Νένου
Annabelle Tsekouras
Γιαννούλα Τσεκούρα
Angelique Gianakis
Αγγελικη Γιαννιάκη
Evie Katsis
Ευγενία Κατσή
Peta Peppas
Παναγιώτα Πέππα
Valantina Marinakis
Βαλεντίνα Μαρινάκη
Valiyah Koufogiannis
Βάγια Κουφογιάννη
Olivia Koutroulis
Ολίβια Κουτρούλη
Maria Paloglou
Μαρία Παλόγλου
Georgia Garcia
Γεωργία Γκαρσία