Nisiotika
Music genre and type of dance
title: "Nisiotika" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["greek-dances"] description: "Music genre and type of dance" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisiotika" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Music genre and type of dance ::
Nisiotika (, meaning "insular (songs)") are the songs and dances of the Aegean islands with a variety of styles. Outside of Greece, it is played in the diaspora in countries such as Turkey, Australia, the United States and elsewhere.
The lyre is the dominant folk instrument along with the laouto, violin, tsampouna, and souravli with widely varying Greek characteristics. The lyre and violin are typically played in a microtonal manor through the usage of specific articulations and string bending.
Representative musicians and performers of nisiotika include: Mariza Koch, credited with reviving the field in the 1970s, Yiannis Parios, Domna Samiou and the Konitopoulos family (Giorgos and Vangelis Konitopoulos, Eirini, Nasia and Stella Konitopoulou).
There are also prominent elements of Cretan music on the Dodecanese Islands and Cyclades.
Notable artists
Composers
- Giorgos Konitopoulos
- Vangelis Konitopoulos
- Stathis Koukoularis
- Yiannis Parios
- Nikos Ikonomidis
- Stamatis Hatzopoulos
Singers
- Glykeria
- Vagelis Konitopoulos
- Stella Konitopoulou
- Yiannis Parios
- Domna Samiou
- Mariza Koch
- Nasia Konitopoulou
Folk dances
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Astypalaia_goodbye_Asty65.jpg" caption="Dancers from [[Astypalaia"] ::
The Aegean Islands have a rich folk dance tradition. For example; syrtos, sousta and ballos.
- Ballos
- Ikariotikos
- Kamara
- Kalymnikos
- Karavas of Naxos
- Lerikos of Leros
- Mihanikos
- Parianos
- Pentozalis
- Pirgousikos of Chios
- Pidikhtos
- Rhoditikos
- Sousta (Sousta Lerou, Sousta Tilou)
- Syrtos (Syrtos Kythnou, Syrtos Serifou, Syrtos Naxou)
- Trata
References
References
- (2020-09-08). "Music around the World: A Global Encyclopedia [3 volumes]: A Global Encyclopedia". ABC-CLIO.
- Glaros, Angela. (2022). "Nisiotika: Music, Dances, and Bitter-Sweet Songs of the Aegean Islands by Gail Holst-Warhaft (review)". Journal of Modern Greek Studies.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::