Winter Hearts

Someone Cruel

Siana was beginning to feel herself again, enjoying seeing her two friends Irini and Mirella who had their own dance school in the biggest township in the vicinity, in Amfissa. During the last year she had begun to notice the dancers in the area and had taken an interest in getting to know them and exchange ideas. They would often bump into each other in the various gathering spots in the area, but it was always in this club that they would hang out to dance. Because of the unusually spacious dance area, they had room to move and chat as they moved to the music.

Now, she felt she was comfortable on the floor dancing with N, Irini and Mirella, whilst Ken and Ravi sort of kind of danced too. She thought it was funny that they continued dancing, even though they seemed to be getting more and more self-conscious with the girls dancing as a group with them. She presumed they were watching their behaviour as celebrities, but she felt it was more out of habit than because they believed they would actually be recognised. However, she knew that the possibility of them being recognised by dancers was pretty high, since many of them were familiar with kpop dance routines. However, because dance instruction in the area tended to be more for traditional or classical dance, it was unlikely that students would know much about kpop idol groups. People around here tended to want to learn the salsa, for exercise more than anything, and also tended to be older, as they could afford the luxury of dance lessons. So she felt there was little chance that they would be recognised, except maybe by a younger school crowd.

She realised N's dance vocabulary tended to live in the contemporary dance spectrum with commercial and hip hop thrown in. She and her dance friends, perhaps from being Greek and familiar with middle eastern belly dancing, enjoyed the more latin dance influences as well as reggae and hiphop.

She was relaxing, glad to see N responding to the music and getting into it, showing off his abilities to the pop reggae that was playing, albeit with a kpop-dance flavour.

She knew that, in most Greek nightclubs, the usual song lineup went from pop chart toppers in the early part of the evening when the doors opened around 10 pm, then moved into a more personal DJ selection which followed the various themes each night - and finally after midnight before the doors closed, would come the Greek pop, and commercial laika songs which would encourage clubbers to break out their tsifteteli moves. In Korea she knew the equivalent music to laika would be the faster dance trot songs, whilst in Malaysia the equivalent would be dangdut.

And while the appropriate dance moves didn't really resemble each other, there was one over-riding common theme: the music was meant to pluck the cultural heartstrings and make people let go. Clubbers de-stressed and ended up leaving the clubs feeling rejuvenated and uplifted, and a little more patriotic.

She made eye contact with Irini and Mirella, and they smiled knowingly. It was close to closing time and they knew the good songs were coming. She was hoping for some older Greek pop hits to make it to the playlist, and sure enough, the first strains of bouzouki strings laid over a middle-eastern beat began to play over the speakers.

There was a general shouting and whooping as the people returned to the dance floor, arms upraised and fingers snapping in time to the beat. This particular track was a big hit almost a decade ago, Panos Kiamos' "Return to Me", about a lovesick ex who admonishes his now-free girlfriend who is having a great time without him.

"One heart, which is in pain for you and cries all night, senses you tonight. One life, which breaks in two and is now in pieces, cares for you tonight. One soul, which is lost and dies... for you"

There is a word in Malay which describes the circumstance of being unable to bear one's feelings, be they the urge to pinch a baby's adorable cheeks, or feeling like biting someone out of irritation, or cuteness or lust - those feelings which threaten to spill over, are referred to as "geram".