Last Saturday was my niece Marouso’s wedding. The wedding was held at the small chirch of Agia Anna, at the top of the hill just at the end of the town of Parikia, with a glorious view of the sunset.

The reception was held at the Parasporos Beach Bar which is very close to my home. The weather was stinking hot that day and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who wished I’d brought my bathing suit with me…

The decorations were absolutely stunning. The theme was bougainvillea, a bloom that’s very greek island, and the colour chosen by the bride were fucsia, pink and gold. The beach bar is all white, set right above the beach, so the setting was gorgeous.

Bright colours are not usually my thing, but it worked so well. The bride is into more exotic colours, and it was her wedding after all!

But the reason I’m sharing this on my blog isn’t about the wedding and how pretty it all was… Its about my mom. Here she is with my aunt, the bride’s grandmother.

My mom is the third sister in her family. The older sisters are 95 and 94, mom is 90 years old. Here she is on the dance floor… The one wearing trousers.

They played a couple of Cycladic numbers, ‘balos’ its called. No matter how tired or unwell mom may be, she can never resist dancing balos. I filmed this one short video of her and the bride’s grandmother, then joined her. She’s pretty amazing, don’t you think?

(ftou! ftou! ftou! – spit so you don’t give her the evil eye!)

I had an older video of mom dancing with a man older than her, but can’t find it… sorry.

Balos is my favourite of all greek dances. I’ve mentioned it before. Its got a jaunty rhythm and its a couple’s dance, unlike most greek dances which are either solitary (like the zembekiko) or the other ones where people dance in a line or a circle.

Its a pretty, flirty, courting dance where a couple dances around eachother. Such a lovely dance… that and the fiddle, no wonder I am so into rockabilly!

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