Hellenic Dance

About

This ministry is where Faith, Folklore, Fellowship and Fun collide. The Hellenic Dance Ministry’s goal is to teach the religious, historical and cultural significance of Greek Folk Dances in the Marietta Community. We learn how our Orthodox faith has shaped our Hellenic Culture and vise-versa. We teach the customs and traditions of each region of Greece as well as the religious celebrations through Greek folk dance. We educate our youth on the significance of the traditional Greek folk dressing and strive to preserve a collection of authentic Greek costumes. We teach the authentic steps of folk dances and use these dances in combinations for the more modern and contemporary dance show pieces. We teach the spirit of stewardship to our children, as they learn not only to give their time and talent to their parish here in Marietta, but to other parishes in our region and the outside community at large. We create a Christian wholesome environment and team atmosphere for our youth to come together in fellowship.

Our dancers begin in Pre-K at age 3, and our young adults are still dancing in their early 30’s. A total of 7 dance groups perform for functions at our parish, such as the Marietta Greek Festival. We also have a group of dancers called the “Travel Troupe” from grades 6-12 that perform at cultural events in the local community and various events in the nearby cities. Our dancers have performed in the following cities for their Greek Festivals: Anderson SC, Asheville NC, Augusta GA, Chattanooga TN, Cumming GA, Macon GA, and Peachtree City GA. We have also performed at the Atlanta Serbian Festival, Cobb County International Festival, Woodstock International Festival, Perry International Festival, and numerous other events. Our dancers in grades 3-12 can also participate in the Metropolis of Atlanta’s Hellenic Dance Festival (HDF) program, a Greek folk dance competition focused on preservation of the authentic form of Greek Folk dance in a Christian worship and fellowship and a manner of friendly competition. Our Marietta dance groups have won the following awards: 2000 – Gold for high school group, 2005 – Bronze for high School group, 2006 – Bronze for middle school group, 2011 – Bronze for high school group, 2015 – Bronze for young adult group, 2017 – Bronze for middle school group, 2018 – Costume Award for middle school group, 2019 – Bronze and Costume Award for Elementary school group, 2022 – Bronze for middle and high school combined group, 2023 – Silver, Costume Award, and Folk Expression Award for high school and middle school combined group.

UPDATE — 8/5/26

We hope everyone is having a restful summer! Can you believe time is drawing near for our school activities and our church activities to start up again for a new year?! I for one am so excited to begin another year and see all our great students return. Please read about our events coming up this month and plan accordingly.

AUGUST 16 PARISH-WIDE HOMECOMING LUNCHEON: The parish is gathering after liturgy Sunday the 16th to gather together, catch up from summertime and all ministries will be on hand for ministry activities registrations. Hellenic Dance will be there as well at our table ready to welcome you all back and get you signed up for one, two, or all of our Hellenic Dance activities! Our Hellenic Dance team will be on hand to answer any questions you may have and get you all set in the activities for the 2026-27 school year!

AUGUST 23 HELLENIC DANCE HOSTS COFFEE HOUR: Hellenic Dance again needs parents to donate snack foods, fruits, sweets, drinks, etc., as well as help us set-up, serve and clean up after coffee hour that Sunday. Please look out for Signup Genius to select the way in which you wish to assist us. The plan is we will be showing videos of our past Hellenic Dance Festival (HDF) competition performances on the projector as people talk and have their coffee. We hope to attract more interested dancers in our HDF competition program geared towards children in grades 3-12.

SAVE THE DATES
FRIDAY AUGUST 21 – GREEK DANCE EVENING AT YEERO VILLAGE! bring the family out and watch our dancers perform while having an authentic Greek meal! A portion of the proceeds earned during the evening will go towards our HDF competition group as they start fundraising to attend the HDF competition in Orlando January 2027. Come out and support us! OPA!!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22 – GREEK FEST FAYETTE, NIGHT IN GREECE – Our sister parish, St. Christopher in Peachtree City/Fayetteville GA is hosting their 21st Annual Greek Festival Evening event. Doors open at 6pm, Dinner served at 7pm, Greek music and Dancing until 11pm.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29 – COBB COUNTY INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL at Jim Miller Park in West Cobb. Our Travel Troupe Dancers will be performing. Come out to see all the ethnic dance groups of Cobb County represented in this great event and eat food from each country!
Thank you for continuing to support our faith and culture!

Participate

Travel Troupe – This dance group travels regionally to other international and Greek Festival events and is for dancers who are in the 6^th grade and older. We practice from Mid-August through Mid-November on Sundays, after liturgy for roughly one hour. Events will be mostly on weekends, but some smaller events are on the weekends as well. All money earned from these performances will go towards the individual dancers’ costume fees and/or expenses for HDF.

Hellenic Dance Festival (HDF) – HDF is a metropolis wide event gathering dance groups from all over the metropolis and the rest of the USA. This is our competition dance group, please do not let that deter you from joining, all you need is to be 8 years of age or older and have passion for Greek Dancing in its purest form. We practice on Sundays for 2 hours, from Mid-August through Mid-January concluding with the HDF event on MLK Holiday in January.

Marietta Greek Festival dance groups practice Sundays beginning in mid-January, 2027 through mid-May and concluding at the Marietta Greek Festival the third weekend of May.

Dance groups are organized and practice on Sunday as follows:

Pitsirikia (Pre-K) will meet in room 125 with Ms. Niki Catsulis at 12:30-1:00. Please make sure your little one has gone to the bathroom before heading to class.

Palamakia (Kindergarten and 1st grade) will meet in room 127 with Ms. Christy Macris at 12:30-1:00. Please make sure your little one has gone to the bathroom before heading to class.

Asteria (2nd and 3rd grades) will meet in room 128 at 12:30-1:15.

Petaloudes (4th and 5th grades) will meet in room 130 with Mr. Gabriel Mavromatides at 12:30-1:15

Phoenix (6th-8th grades) will meet in the gym with Ms. Karen Fox and Mr. George Saad at 12:30-2:30

Eleftheria (9th-12th grades) will meet in the gym with Ms. Paulina Vastakis and Mr. Jimmy Smith at 1:00-3:30

REGISTRATION FOR HELLENIC DANCE:

If you haven’t registered yet, no problem! Please follow the following three steps in order to make sure you are registered:

(1) First, your family or the individual dancer has to be a steward of the parish. Please complete a stewardship form for this year if you haven’t done so yet with our online 2026 Membership/Stewardship Form.

(2) Second, please register your youth for our youth programs (including dance) with our online 2025-26 Youth Ministries Registration.

(3) Third, please also confirm with our dance team that you intend to participate and have completed the above two steps. You can email us at: hellenicdance@holytransfiguration.info.

You’re also welcome to show up at dance practice to register but will be asked to make sure you complete the above steps as well. For more information, contact Hellenic Dance Director Paulina Vastakis at hellenicdance@holytransfiguration.info. Thank you!