Dailiana (Daliana) Tsámikos • Chain Folk Dance • Greece/Thessaly

Dailiana (Daliana) Tsámikos, Νταϊλιάνα, is a women’s version of tsámiko chain folk dance from the western Thessaly region of Greece danced in the villages of both Vlach and Karagoúnides peoples (read Don’s articles on these peoples and the dances of Thessaly). The dance is a combination steps from a “regular” men’s Tsámikos and Kalamatianós done in 3/4 time instead of 7/8. Nearly all international folk dance notations favor the spelling without the i after a or diaeresis diacritical ï (ϊ): Daliana (Νταλιάνα). References to the song music and lyrics and the most successful YouTube searches in Greek include it: Dailiana (Νταϊλιάνα). Note that the pronunciation /da͡ɪl’jɑ.nə/ is close(ish) to the English feminine name Diana and NOT at all like “Dah-LEE-ah-nah.” Dailiana is an adjective translating something like “woman of beauty and strength” rather than a given name, although it appears as a Greek surname and worldwide as a given name, especially in Spanish heritage.

Dance Notes

As mentioned above, Dailiana Tsámikos is a combination of Kalamatianós done in 3/4 instead of 7/8 (Kalamatianós being a Syrtós done in 7/8 instead of 2/4) and one measure of Tsámikos plus some Tsámikos-style elements. Dancers should generally face the center of the circle with only a small rotation (“slightly”) to the direction of travel. Recreational dancers tend to turn nearly full-facing reverse-LOD and LOD, and some older dance notes actually describe this.

Dance Variations

• Tsámikos Shuffle: You can opt for a pair of “Tsámikos shuffle” steps for Bars 1 & 2 and also use that style for Bar 4 as well. As seen in the later half of Dunav’s demo video and several performance videos, one simply dances Bar 1 twice as a quick RL shuffle then RL. Notes will count Tsámikos double/catch steps as 1, &, 2, 3, but the first two steps are a “ba-dum” quickie. As soon as you get one foot down, you step with the other. It’s more like 1, e, hold, 2, 3 or qMSS, where S (slow) is one count, Q (quick) is half S, q (instant) is half Q, and M (medium) is q+Q [as expressed by an engineer].
• Tsámikos regular: You can skip the math above and just do regular Tsámikos in Bar 4 with a hold on count 2.
• Turns: One can also add a CW turn in Bar 1 and/or Bar 2 (shuffle or normal) and then CCW in Bar 4 (shuffle only).
• Right-End Bounce: In Bar 3, there are groups doing “step, together-bounce, bounce” (see notes).
• Left-End Kalamatianós: Some groups, including Fort Collins and some performance examples, dance Bar 5 as full Kalamatianós where R steps behind L instead of in front. But I see the “R in front of L” as an important part of the “Tsámikos-ification” of the dance, since you would be lifting R in front of L in regular Tsámikos.

Music: Many More Recordings of Dailiana (Νταϊλιάνα)