As Ayia Napa Mayor Giannis Karousos told KYPE, "in the last years after the end of the Ayia Napa International Festival, which ends around the end of September, we are trying to break a Guinness record, aiming at the largest possible participation not only of Cypriots but and foreign tourists. This effort of ours started a few years ago with the sirtaki on the beach of Ayia Napa, we continued with the Kalamatian, the Russian kalinga dance and the zorba ".
This year, he continued, "we will try to break the record with zeibekiko which is a purely Greek dance. Zeybekiko is a dance that acrobatics, that balances between spirit and matter, transforming both into ecstasy, an inner dance, solitary, a dance full of leventia ".
Mr. Karousos expressed the appreciation that "everyone who will attend the event will be satisfied and impressed by the presentation and the whole effort to break the record. We hope that the promotion we will receive from this effort will be very great and exceptional, not only for the Municipality of Ayia Napa and the region of Famagusta, but also for Cyprus in general ".
This year, he continued, "the effort will be made on September 27 at 17:00 in Seferis Square in Ayia Napa and the goal is to break the Guinness record with the Zeybekiko of Evdokia. This particular zeibekiko is one of the most famous in Cyprus and Greece and it was chosen precisely because it is famous and has been danced by thousands of people at various events around the world ".
To another question, the Mayor of Ayia Napa answered that "one of our main priorities was to simplify the steps of this dance so that it can be danced by anyone who wants to dance it. The choreography of Zeybek is on video on the website of the Municipality of Ayia Napa www.agianapa.org.cy and those who want can learn the steps ".
On the website of the Municipality, he continued “there is also a list to declare those who want to participate, both foreigners and locals, in this effort. The entries must be submitted in time because the Municipality of Ayia Napa must know the exact number in order to supply the participants with special T-shirts, taking into account that everyone should be uniformly dressed ".
Answering a question, Mr. Karousos said that "essentially 250 dancers should dance in sync with Evdokia Zeibekiko for five minutes. Of course we know that the participations will be much more, while several of them will not be counted because they will not be synchronized ".
The Municipality of Ayia Napa, continued, “will cover the cost of the buses that will transport the dancers of any dance school that wants to come to Ayia Napa from any part of Cyprus and to date we already have many participations. The invitation is open to everyone whether one is alone, or with a group, or is a dance group, or a dance group. All we want is for the participants to know the choreography and to be uniformly dressed ".
Source: KYPE