Kypseli
Teaching Staff
Louise Bilman, a trained musician and former
professional accompanist, has pursued studies in Greek music
since 1960. She taught the dance portion of UCLA's first course
in Greek music, given by Dr. Sotirios Chianis in 1966, and
together they set up the first formal course of dance instruction
in a Southern California Greek Orthodox church, which was
courageously pioneered by St. Katherine Church of Redondo Beach.
Louise (Anderson) Bilman taught an academic course on Greek
Dance, "Greek Dance in its Cultural Context," at UCLA
from 1968 to 1975. She traveled extensively on a series of study
tours to Greece, initially with Dr. Chianis and his family on an
ethnomusicology course, and subsequently each year independently.
Her area of interest has taken her for extended visits to
Samothrace, Northwest Epirus, Western Crete, and the Thracian
borders areas.
Since 1976, she has focused her research in Kalymnos and the central Dodecanese Islands. Because her study is not only the forms of dance but also its social utilization as a representation of community values, she is interested in the "raw material" --the dances and songs of shepherds and sponge fishermen of small villages -- rather than the performance groups, as a vehicle to perpetuate traditional values. She has presented seminars on this topic at the ITHACA Cultural Study Program in Crete, under the direction of Dr. Nikos Germanacos. She has served as a judge in the Greek Orthodox Youth Folk Dance Festival since 1985.
Arturo
del Rio was born
in Mexico. He was a frequent leader of Greek dances at the
Intersection in Los Angeles during the 1970s. During a trip to
Greece, while sitting on the beach one day, Arturo spotted a
beautiful young woman and introduced himself. The woman, Domna,
laughs, "I thought he was a Turk!" But after a
courtship, they married and settled in Pasadena, California. In
his real life, Arturo works as a high school principal, but on
Friday nights he is often seen leading dances at Kypseli.
Joan Friedberg danced with the Greek Intersection Dancers
and Panegyri dance companies in Los Angeles from 1972 to 1978.
She was a musician (llautė and cifteli) and singer with the Drita
Albanian Folk Ensemble from 1983 until 2002. She has performed
with Los Angeles Greek bands Paradosi, Sto Horio, and Triandafilia
and also played laouto for the award-winning Junior Olympians at the annual
Greek Orthodox FDF (Folk Dance Festivals) in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Ms. Friedberg traveled to Crete
and Santorini in 1971. She later traveled for three months in the
Balkans and Turkey in 1982, observing dance events in the
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and in Greece.
She has made six trips to Greece,
three of them focusing on the Florina region, in order to document village dances and record
traditional musicians. As a result of these endeavors, she produced a CD, Florina: Yesterday and Today, and, in 2004, a DVD, Dances of Florina, Macedonia, Greece.
She has published several articles about
Greek folklore and served as contributing editor of The
International Greek Folklore Society's Laografia from
May 1995 to February 1996. Her research has twice been published in
Greece in the Proceedings of the International Organization
for Folk Arts (I.O.F.A.) – UNESCO, in 1997 and 2000.
Her papers can be found in English on her website, Joan Carol Friedberg. She is also the author of the
recently published book, Dances on the Off Beat: Travels in
Greece. While she teaches dances
from many regions of Greece, her particular focus is on those
dances she has personally observed in their context in villages
of Epirus and Western Macedonia. Her philosophy as a teacher is
to help dancers understand the music and capture the emotion and
mood of the dance rather than simply mimic the movements. Pat (Nelson)
Karamanougian
has been teaching Greek dances for more than 20 years. She first
discovered Greek dancing in 1975 in a little club in Hermosa
Beach, California, where musician Andy Chianis was playing.
Before long, Pat, a kindergarten teacher by profession, began
teaching dances there. "I have a Greek heart and a love for
the music," she says, "and my love is taverna and
festival dancing." Pat has specialized in introducing dances
such as Hasapiko, Hasaposerviko, Syrto and Karsilamas to
beginners, and her enthusiasm has been so infectious, she has
acquired a following in Southern California. She has taught at
Greek dance clubs, such as the Intersection, at Cerritos
Community College, and at Greek restaurants such as the Trojan
Horse, Orlandos, Aegean Isles, and Fran O'Brien's Greek night.
Her popularity has resulted in a reserved teaching spot for her
the second Friday of every month at Kyspeli Greek Dance Center.
In 1981, Pat distributed a schedule of Greek festivals in
Southern California to a few of her parea (group of friends). By
popular demand, distribution of her annual festival schedule has
grown into the hundreds. Most of her
research in Greek dances has focused on Pontian and Macedonian
villages in Northern Greece, and she has visited and seen
authentic Greek dancing in Athens, Ioannina, Thrace,
Thessaloniki, the Macdeonian regions of Edessa, Serres, Roumlouki
and Florina, Pontian communities, and the islands of Crete,
Karpathos and Chios. She presented (and published) a paper on
"Wedding Traditions in Florina" at the International
Organization of Folk Arts conference in September 2000 in Aridea,
Edessa, Macedonia, and has written articles for Oli Mazi,
the annual FDF newspaper, including "The Transmission of
Traditional Greek Village Dance" in the 2001 edition. She
specializes in teaching Pontian and Macedonian dances. Michael R.
Smith
has been a staff teacher at Kypseli Greek Dance Center for 15
years. He performed with Traditional Greek Dance in 1984 and
Troupe Hellas in 1988. Before embarking on his own field studies
in Greek dance, Mr. Smith participated in numerous workshops,
symposia and conferences with renowned master teachers, including
Athan Karras, Joe Graziosi, Nikos Mathioudakis, Dennis Boxell,
Nikos Savvidis and many other guest teachers from Greece. He
attended dance conferences across the United States fr om 1988
through 1993, including special dance workshops with members of
the Dora Stratou Theatre of Athens in 1986, 1987, and 1989. In 1991, Mr. Smith spent
the summer in Crete, returning in 1992 and 1993, in order to
absorb the richness of Cretan culture and dance traditions.
During those visits, he also participated in Mazoxi dance
workshops. He returned to Crete once again in 1995. He also
experienced traditional dance in Kea, in 1992; Olympos,
Karpathos, on August 15, 1992; in Lesbos (Mytilini) and Chios in
1993; and in Epiros in 1997. After moving to
Greece in1995, Ms. Taylor began studying Greek traditional dances
with Marina Xristofaki and Yiannis Konstantinou. While in Greece,
she attended workshops featuring Greek traditional dance and
customs, taught by master teachers from many specific geographic
zones. She continues to take courses in Greece, Europe and in
North America. Ms. Taylor has been choreographer
of ethnic material for stage, screen and television, such as
"Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman," and "Beverly Hills,
90210." She taught and produced international folk dance
festivals for children at schools throughout Southern California.
She has taught various dance forms at UCLA, Loyola Marymount, and
Pepperdine Universities. Last July, with Ian Price (Drita),
she started the now popular Cafe Aman, held the second Saturday
each month at Cafe Dansa in West Los Angeles.
Anne Gani Sirota was born in Alexandria, Egypt,
into a Greek family who had emigrated from Epirus. Anne started
folk dancing in 1967 in Los Angeles. She started traveling to
Greece in 1970, reconnecting with her Greek roots, in search of
both her familial heritage and authentic village dancing. In the
ensuing years, Anne performed with the Intersection Greek
dancers, the Intersection Balkan and Adagio dancers, O Pontos,
Panegyri, and Ellas Dance Theatre, for which she was Assistant
Director. She started teaching Greek dance in 1972 and has been a
dance judge since 1988 for the annual Greek dance competition
sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Western diocese. She is a
frequent consultant and teacher to local FDF dance groups.
Madelyn Taylor holds a Master's Degree in dance ethnology
from UCLA. While an undergraduate in English Literature, she
began her passion with dance ethnology and ethnomusicology. She
was a charter member, choreographer, soloist and women's director
with the AMAN folk ensemble (originally known as UCLA Village
Dancers) and taught the repertoire to all new members for the
company's first three years. Later she helped design, organize
and teach at the AMAN Institute. During the 1960s and '70s, she
performed with Elsie Dunin's Yugoslavian UCLA group, as well as
her Hungarian group, Betyarok. Mady was a member of Westwind
International and of Hadarim, American Liberty Assembly, and
Vince Evanchuk's Ukrainian company. She also taught the first
Balkan dance classes at Sweet's Mill, forerunner to the Mendocino
Balkan Camps.
