Vimata Stin Paradosi (translated: Steps in Tradition) is a Festival where various societies from all over Greece get together and celebrate the art of folk dance and the culture that comes with it. During my research for this project I came across two earlier photographs by Lucas Pinhel – one featuring a man dressed as a “Tsolias” and another featuring a female dancer, also in folklore attire. These became the basis for the Festival’s poster and banner respectively. Both shots, deliberately taken out of focus, give a whirling, vibrant sensation, showing that traditional dances are far from an outdated museum piece. Moreover, using one of them in the poster and the other in the banner created a sense of interaction between the two images, the two dancers, the two different types of dances – and that is exactly the purpose of Vimata stin Paradosi: to be the starting point for communication, for dialogue, for togetherness through the art of motion.

Photo Credits: Spyros Paloukis, Lucas Pinhel