The hasapiko ( el, χασάπικο, , meaning “the butcher's

ance Ance may refer to: * Ance (given name), a feminine given name * Ance, Latvia * Ance, Pyrénées-Atlantiques Ance (; Gascon: ''Ansa'') is a former commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. O ...

��) is a Greek folk dance from

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. The dance originated in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

as a battle

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...

with swords performed by the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

butchers' guild, which adopted it from the military of the

Byzantine era The Byzantine calendar, also called the Roman calendar, the Creation Era of Constantinople or the Era of the World ( grc, Ἔτη Γενέσεως Κόσμου κατὰ Ῥωμαίους, also or , abbreviated as ε.Κ.; literal translation of ...

.''Sword dance'

in Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 14 April 2022, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online In

during the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine times, it was called in Greek μακελλάρικος χορός (''makellárikos horós, ''"butcher's dance", from μακελλάριος “butcher”). Some

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

, however, reserve the latter term only for the fast version of the dance. The slow version of the dance is called χασάπικο βαρύ / χασάπικος βαρύς (''hasapiko vary ''or ''hasapikos varys, ''"heavy ''hasapiko''") and generally employs a meter. The fast version of the dance uses a meter. It is variously called γρήγορο χασάπικο (''grigoro hasapiko'', "''fast'' ''hasapiko''") or χασαποσέρβικο (''hasaposerviko''), the last two terms in reference to

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n and other Balkan influences on this version of the dance. The fast version is also called μακελλάριος χορός (''makellarios horos)'',

Sirtaki Sirtaki or syrtaki ( el, συρτάκι) is a dance of Greek origin, choreographed for the 1964 film ''Zorba the Greek''. It is a recent Greek folkdance, and a mixture of "syrtos" and the slow and fast rhythms of the hasapiko dance. The dance ...

is a relatively new, choreographed version of hasapiko.

References

External links

Hasapiko description
{{Balkan music Cultural history of Greece Greek dances Greek music

See also

References

External links