It takes its name from the Zeybeks, an irregular militia living in the Aegean Region of the Ottoman Empire from late 17th to early 20th centuries.[1] It was first seen at the end of the 17th century in cities such as Constantinople and Smyrni. Evliya Çelebi mentions in his writings that it was danced in Magnesia and in Aydın at local feasts.[2] Originally a dance for two armed people facing one another, it developed into an improvised dance for a single male.[3] Wikipedia
The Zeibekiko is a saturnine dance. Danced by men and
although has no concrete steps, hardly danced, because it has internal tension
and meaning that comes from the soul of the dancer. Has priestly and mystical
mood. He expresses the eternal fight with death and the defeat. He who dances
zeibekiko needs mental preparation, to feel the psychic pain inside him.
Zeibekiko expresses the despair of life, the unfulfilled
dream, the longing, the affliction. The dancer is not ashamed to manifest his
pain or his weakness. It ignores social conventions and the shallow
respectability. The dancer sympathizes with the verse that expresses to some
extent his personal case. Chooses the song he will dance and improvise in a
very small space, humbly and with dignity. The dancer doesn't jump brazenly
right and left, he is in devoutness. The most appropriate time to make a turn is
the time of music bridge, when the singer take a breath. The arms are open and
his head held high, reminiscent of the crucifixion and seems as bear the
suffering of the whole world at that single moment. When his arms are open, is
like an eagle and then he bends kinked in a supplication position to the
destiny and the divine. The rate follows the Byzantine measure to 9/8.
The history and route of Zeibekiko has different versions,
like the origin of the name. I hold the version that wants to be an ancient dance
from Thrace that passed in Asia and repatriated with the arrival of mikrasiates
after the disaster of Asia Minor, to Greece. The word Zeibekiko, originated
from the first component of the word Zeus that symbolizes the spirit and from
the second component the word Bekos or vekos which means bread, and symbolizes
the body. That means the compound of the soul with the body, the divine with
the human.
