The Pentozali or Pentozalis is the trademark folk dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

 of the island of Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

. It takes its name from its five ("pente") basic steps and its sprightly and ultimately very fast pace ("zalos" being a rare Greek word for "jump"). The name can thus be translated as "five-jumps", its typically Greek wordplay implying that dancing it can make one jump five times over. Also in the spirit of wordplay, "zali" means dizziness, and the name of the dance can also be understood ("five-dizzy") as one that can make the dancers dizzy five times over.

The Pentozali is a war dance

War dance

A war dance is a dance involving mock combat, usually in reference to tribal warrior societies where such dances were performed as a ritual connected with endemic warfare....

, vigorous, with high jumping movements and allows for much improvisation. It starts at a moderate pace and accelerates progressively. The dancers hold each other by the shoulders and form an incomplete circle, which rotates counterclockwise very slowly, or sometimes not at all, because most of the lively steps are semistationary. The first dancer is expected to improvise engaging in acrobatics; in this case he and the second dancer hold hands, rather than shoulders, and the second dancer stands still and rigid, so that the first dancer has a stable base on which to perform. Once the first dancer has finished his part, he is expected to break ranks and slowly dance his way to the back of the line, yielding his place to the second, and so on. Women also perform the dance, but their steps are more restrained because their dress does not allow for high jumps. Traditional Cretan menswear, on the other hand, facilitates acrobatic dancing as it includes the black vraka, a variant of breeches

Breeches

Breeches are an item of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles...

 that are worn tight around the waist and thighs and extremely baggy and loose around the hips.

Pentozali music is instrumental: the main tune is played by the pear-shaped, bow

Bow (music)

In music, a bow is moved across some part of a musical instrument, causing vibration which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones....

ed Cretan lyre, to the accompaniment of a lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

, played not in a melodic but in a percussive-like fashion. It is the lyre player who usually directs the flow of the dance: he improvises to signal the first dancer to improvise too, and resumes the main tune when it is time for the first dancer to yield his place to another.

It has often been suggested that this may be the descendant of a Minoan

Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...

 dance, perhaps that of the Kouretes, a mythical troupe of ancient warriors. There is a forgotten dance of the area of the Psiloritis Mountains where the Kouretes lived, called Empyrrikios (from the ancient dance Pyrrhichios), whose steps are very similar to Pentozali.

See also

• Greek dances
  Greek dances
  Greek dance is a very old tradition, being referred to by authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian. There are different styles and interpretations from all of the islands and surrounding mainland areas. Each region formed its own choreography and style to fit in with their own ways...
  
  
• Sirtaki
  Sirtaki
  Sirtaki or syrtaki is a popular dance of Greek origin, choreographed, by Giorgos Provias for the 1964 film Zorba the Greek. It is not a traditional Greek folkdance, but a mixture of the slow and fast versions of the hasapiko dance...
  
  
• Syrtos
  Syrtos
  Syrtos , is the collective name of a group of Greek folk dances. Syrtos, along with its relative kalamatianos, are the most popular dances throughout Greece and are frequently danced by the Greek diaspora worldwide. They are very popular in social gatherings, weddings and religious festivals...
  
  
• Kalamatianos
  Kalamatianos
  The Kalamatianós Dance is one of the best known dances of Greece. It is popular Greek folkdance throughout Greece, Cyprus and internationally and is often performed at many social gatherings worldwide. As is the case with most Greek folk dances, it is danced in circle with a counterclockwise...
  
  
• Greek music
• Byzantine music
  Byzantine music
  Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek system...
  
  
• Greek folk music
  Greek folk music
  Greek folk music includes a variety of Greek styles played by ethnic Greeks in Greece, Cyprus, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. Apart from the common music found all-around Greece, there are distinct types of folk music, sometimes related to the history or simply the taste of the...