Pentozali

The Pentozali or Pentozalis (Greek: Πεντοζάλης) is the trademark folk dance of the island of Crete. It takes its name from the fifth (pente) attempt or step (ζάλος zalos being a Cretan Greek word for "step") of Cretans to liberate Crete from Ottomans. The name can thus be translated as "five-steps". Also in the spirit of wordplay, ζάλη 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 dance has ten steps.

Music of Greece
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Ancient music Byzantine music Opera Greek musical system Greek musical instruments Greek dances Worldwide
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Church music (Byzantine) Classical music Ionian School National School Greek folk Laïko Rock Hip Hop Punk Neo kyma Éntekhno
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Contemporary Entehno Nisiotika Rebetiko Skiladiko
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Music awards	Arion Awards MAD Video Music Awards
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Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	"Hymn to Liberty"
Regional music
Related areas	Cyprus, Pontus, Constantinople, South Italy
Regional styles	Aegean Islands Crete Epirus (polyphonic song) Ionian Islands Macedonia Peloponnese Thessaly Thrace

The Pentozali is a war dance, 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 βράκα (vraka), a variant of breeches that are worn tight around the waist and thighs and extremely baggy and loose around the hips.

Legend goes that when the Turkish armies sailed to Crete to annihilate the rebellion, the Crete would dance this and the Turkish would run away fearing they were demonic because they danced it so fast and even thought it was a dance sent from god. Before battle, the cretes danced this and would demoralize the armies.

Pentozali music is instrumental: the main tune is played by the pear-shaped, bowed Cretan lyra, to the accompaniment of a laouto, played not in a melodic but in a percussive-like fashion. It is the lyra 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.

Dances vary from island to island and is now a staple of Greek culture. Every island has their own version and their own style. The Dodecanese islands in the Aegean sea dance to this song and has become an everyday thing in Greek culture.