Weekend Festival Will Celebrate Dance, Music, Culture of Greece

In the late ‘60s, Sue Settlage was one of a few teachers of Greek dancing in the Los Angeles area, keeping alive the cultural roots of an ancient civilization.

Settlage’s love of Greece helped galvanize the local Greek community: Today, hundreds of Greek dance classes operate in Southern California, the majority of them led by her former students, she said.

On Friday, Settlage’s 14-year-old daughter, Chrysanthi (it means “made of gold”), will join two dozen other dancers, including some from the Old Country, to celebrate the island of Zakynthos, known as the cradle of Greek music, poetry, intellect and sensual pleasure.

The event is part of a three-day festival in Whittier that includes Greek dance, music and literature workshops; an Ionian banquet and masked ball, and a Sunday brunch followed by a concert featuring the music of Zakynthos. It ends at Friends Park in Whittier with a carnival of food, dancing, singers, musicians and harlequins.

“I have no ethnic reason for doing this,” said Settlage, who is of English descent. She said she is helping organize the festival because she feels a kinship to the people of those islands. “There’s a real richness in Greek culture, the history, the myths, the archeology,” she said.

Most local Greek-Americans have settled in pockets in Downey, Pasadena, Anaheim and Long Beach, Settlage said, where they build a community and a church. “The Greek community in L.A. is wonderful and warm. Right from the beginning, I was immediately accepted into their homes.”

Settlage first became interested in Southern California’s Greek culture when she was a student at Pomona College in the ‘60s. She frequented coffee houses around L.A. where Greek dancing was common. She began teaching dance and learning Greek; she met her husband in a Greek dance class. They live in Whittier and have visited Greece more than half a dozen times. “The music is wonderful,” Sue Settlage said. “You can’t not tap your feet to it.”

This weekend, people from as far away as New Jersey and Chicago are expected to descend on Whittier to join in the party, Settlage said. The festival is sponsored by the International Greek Folklore Society and the Cultural Arts Commission and Historical Museum of Whittier. A weekend package price including admission to all events is $98. Prices for individual events are listed below.

The weekend’s events include:

Friday

3 p.m. Registration begins at the Whittier Hilton Hotel, 7320 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier.

7 p.m. The Whittier Historical Museum, 6755 Newlin Ave., hosts an exhibition on the island’s folklore, including photographs, artwork, costumes, furniture, books and musical instruments

Cost: $10

Saturday

9:30 a.m. Workshops begin at the Hilton in the boardroom and ballroom. Zakynthia dances are taught by Nikos Kefalinos; Polyphonic music and songs are taught by Timotheos; Greek history, literature and poetry taught by Elza Mylonas.

8 p.m. Grand Masked Ball begins, with guest performances by the Avaz International Dance Theater, in the Hilton Ballroom. Live Zakynthian folk and traditional music will be performed, as will Greek dances.

Cost: Package of three workshops: $45; individual workshops: $15; ball: $45.

Sunday

11 a.m. Brunch in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton honoring Greek artist Dimitris Lagios.

1 p.m. The music of Zakynthos, Whittier Community Theater, 7630 Washington Ave.

3 p.m. Greek carnival with procession takes place in Friends Park, corner of Mar Vista Street and Washington Avenue in Whittier. Admission is free; food and drink cost extra. Cost: Brunch: $20; Concert: $15.

For information and tickets, call the local chapter of the International Greek Folklore Society at (310) 945-3871, (714) 559-8575, (818) 990-5542, (805) 498-8891.