The history of theFOLKLORE & CULTURAL ASSOCIATION OF SITIA"KRITON Rizes"
Our First Steps
1. Learning traditional Cretan Dances
Dimitris Mavrokostas starts his career as a dance teacher in 1979 in Athens together with Yannis Stavrakakis. After a successful career in the capital, he founded his first school in Heraklion. Since then, the Mavrokostas schools have operated two schools in the city of Heraklion and have taught in dozens of villages in Crete from time to time. Continuing the upward course in the field of tradition and with the aim of its evolution, Athanasios Mavrokostas serves the work started by his father with the same passion and the same desire for an increasingly modern tradition open to all, Cretans and non-Cretans alike.
Watching Dimitris & Thanasis' progress, one realizes that only when you evolve something you keep it alive. Cretan dance owes to these dancers, not only its dissemination and maintenance, but its entire modern form.
Source : https://sxolesmavrokosta.gr/σχολη/
Our Association has the honor and pleasure of cooperating with the SCHOOLS OF TRADITIONAL Cretan DANCES of MAYROKOSTA. The top dance teachers are coming to Sitia !!!
The classes will be held in our brand new venue, at 14 Captain John Papadakis Street.
Classes for adults & children (over 5 years old)
For more information, please contact us at our Association's mail kritwn.rizes.sitia@gmail.com or at the phone number 6983368552
Future Goals...
1. Seminars of traditional Cretan singing
2. Presentation of historical elements of the traditional Cretan costume by approved researchers
3. Seminars for learning traditional dances from all over Greece through the organization of excursions
4. Organization of events & musical theatre performances
5. Cooperation with other Cultural Associations from all over Greece
2. Learning traditional musical instruments
The collaborations continue with virtuoso, local, musical artists....
In the area of our Association we will also conduct lessons of traditional musical instruments and in particular :
Mandolin & Lyre :
Manolis Harkiolakis
He started at an early age to be involved in traditional music and not only ...
He took his first steps with the mandolin and next came the Cretan lyre ...
He has participated in musical and theatrical performances, but also in countless musical events, making him IDEALLY FAVORITE to the audience that knows and longs for the Genuine Cretan feast...
Today he has his own music band with equally remarkable musical artists, consisting of : Vangelis Pathiakis, Nikos Pytharoulis (Relios), Christodoulakis Nikos & Katsikalakis George.His motto : "It is not enough to know abou Cretan Music.....You MUST keep listening to it......"
3. Learning traditional dances of Eastern & Western Crete - the Wider Greek Territory
It is with great pleasure and honor that the Folklore and Cultural Association of Sitia "KRITON Rizes" announces the start of its collaboration with Nikos Rousakis, a man who serves the traditional dance and culture of Crete with love, respect, and consistency.
Nikos Rousakis was born in 1975 in Skopi, Sitia. He began dancing in 1982, with Theocharis Xyrouchakis as his first dance teacher. During his school years, he was a member of the Teenage Dance Group of the Lyceum of Greek Women, with dance teacher Kaiti Michelaki, gaining his first experiences through various events, such as the Festival of Sultanina.
In 2006, when he returned permanently to Sitia, he rejoined the dance group of the Lyceum of Greek Women and took his first steps in teaching traditional Greek dances, under the guidance of Dora Xenidakis and Chara Katsikalaki. At the same time, he began researching the dance tradition of Eastern Crete, recording valuable information about the idiom of the Sitiakos Pedichtos.
In 2014, he began collaborating with the Terpsichore School of Traditional Dance in Trieste, Italy, conducting three-day seminars for three consecutive years. In 2016–2017, due to his transfer to Karpathos, he taught Cretan dances at the Lyceum of Greek Women and the Omonoia Association Aperio, while also acquiring knowledge of the island's dances by organizing two major performances.
From 2023 to the present, he has been the head dance teacher at the Eastern Crete Traditional Dance Workshop, as part of the Hamezi Festival. In 2025, he participated as head dance teacher in the FDF competition in California, representing the Greek Community of the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in San Francisco, where the teenage group of expatriates won 4th place. Since February 2025, he has been teaching dances from Asia Minor at the Association of Asia Minor, Pontian, and Armenian Greeks of Sitia.
He has attended seminars on the morphological method of teaching traditional Greek dances with Professor Vasilis Karfis at KEPEM, as well as special seminars on dances of Asia Minor with Christos Theologos, and dances of the rest of Greece with Vasilis Karfis and Nikos Koufakis.
Finally, he has participated in various cultural events in and outside Sitia, taking on the responsibility of traditional dances and consistently serving to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of its region.
Classes will be held at our premises at 14, Kapetan Giannis Papadakis Street.
Classes for adults and children (over 5 years old)
For more information, please contact us at our Association's email address kritwn.rizes.sitia@gmail.com or by phone at 6983368552.
