ANAHEIM : Greeks Bear Their Gift for Dancing

After their California debut, the 25 young Greek dancers bowed deeply to Nikos Katsaros, vice president of the Greek Parliament, who had come to watch their performance at Disneyland on Wednesday.

But it was Mickey Mouse who brought a smile to their faces, as the young adults posed with the Magic Kingdom’s famous mascot for photos.

“Oh, Mickey!” several of them said as they surrounded the costume mouse and photographers snapped away.

The Disneyland performance before Katsaros and about 100 other spectators was the first of several California appearances by the award-winning Lykeion Ellinidon of Larisa, a folk dance troupe from the province of Macedonia.

The troupe, also known as the “Soul of Thessaly,” has performed traditional Greek folk songs and dances throughout Europe and the United States.

The International Greek Folklore Society in Irvine arranged the group’s California visit, which will conclude after a performance Sunday at the Whittier Community Theater.

“This is a goodwill mission to promote awareness of the Greek culture,” said society member Dalia Miller, who introduced the group to the Disneyland audience. “Macedonia has been a Greek province from the time of Alexander the Great.”

The troupe is composed of about 400 people, ages 8 to 25, but the 25 dancers who performed Wednesday are part of a special touring group. That group has performed across Europe and the United States, and in 1988 won the grand-prize Golden Temple Award at the Arigento International Festival in Sicily.

On Wednesday, the young women danced wearing the traditional red embroidered costumes and tassled headdresses from the town of Litis, near the city of Thessaloniki. The young men danced in white embroidered shirts and pants, with black vests and dark red sashes from the town of Episkopi, near the city of Naoussa.

Three musicians playing drum, clarinet and coronet accompanied the dancers during their half-hour performance.

Katsaros, in California on a cultural tour of the country, called the performance a “terrific offering from the young men and women of Greece to the young men and women of the United States.”