Classical Greece Revival

Upon arriving to Athens, we sit a few hiccups with customs and the airlines. Also, we discovered arriving early in the morning that our hotel room wasn't ready and that we would have to wait in the lobby room for it to be ready.

Under the bright Mediterranean sky, the remains of the greatest architecture in the world, testify to the brilliance of the civilization that brought us Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euripides, and Pythagorus. Did you know that Pythagorus designed the first acoustic theater, based on his mathematical discoveries of the nature of a parabola?

In this cradle of learning, dance was cultivated as well, as numerous depictions have shown. Researchers have painstakingly catalogued and re-created the dance of the classical era, and reproduced it in companies such as "Caryatids."' Led by Anah Sari, this group choreographed that movement to a selection from our film's score, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. At sunrise, on the steps of the Academy on Panepistimiou street, seven of these dancers performed the dance, as our cameras recorded and commuters watched in fascination.

The group performed two main dances, one as the "caryatids" which are the female goddess spirits that hold up the temple, and the other as mere mortals. Both were divine.

By 10 a.m., the dance photography was complete, but we took a tour of the coast of the Aegean Sea, capturing some of the rugged coastline, pristine waters and lovely people.

On our last day, we had scheduled an interview with Dr. Alkis Raftis, President of the International Council of Dance, CID. The CID is like the United Nations for dance. Through the CID, that is how we found some of our dance groups. Thank you to the International Council of Dance.

Due to a taxi strike, we had no way to travel to the arranged location of the Dora Stratou Theatre to interview Dr. Alkis Raftis. He generously agreed to come to our hotel to film. We found out on the rooftop of at the Hotel Attalos, where we were staying, there was a restaurant that the hotel staff suggested as a film location. When we arrived at the rooftop not only a beautiful restaurant, but it looked out to the beautiful Acropolis. Who would have known?

A wonderful days to remember.