for my Nicoletta....by Christiana

 For my Nicoletta...



 ("greek glendi" in Milan, Nicoletta is the third dancer next to me)

Nicoletta Battistella was between my first students in my first class of teaching Greek to foreigners in Ikaria...Ever since we met each other every year in Ikaria and in other places in Europe, where she would join our dance workshops with dances from Ikaria. She had first learnt greek dance on the island, in the "panigiria" and she felt this island as her "own" place to dance and its music the most familiar to her...She had done a lot of work with other people in Milan involved in folk dancing to promote Ikaria and generally Greek dancing.  She had also translated the introductory text of the CD Ikaria Methexis in italian, so to help Italians also get in touch with ikarian music... She had organised many workshops, inviting musicians from Ikaria to organize a live event ( Lefteris Poulis, Yannis Loukos and Dimitris Spanos) or inviting dancers from Ikaria and Greece generally : Valia, Filippos , Irene, Ada, Nikos, Mihalis, Eleni, Florentia...

To all of us, she would be a perfect host, offering her generous hospitality with her dear husband Francesco at their wonderful house in Milan. Francesco and Nicoletta being two young architects had designed one of the first "bioclimatical" houses of Italy, showing how choices close to nature can ameliorate our lives...

Nicoletta was always smiling and happy, she was born that way. She was the kind of person who would feel all the dynamics of a group or a relationship and would work silently to help every one have a good time. She was a strong person giving help to weaker persons, with a generous heart, as we say in Greek.... She used to say " Χαλαρά, σιγά σιγά... όπως στην Ικαρία, που οι άνθρωποι σέβονται τους ρυθμούς της φύσης και της ζωής"...( "Slowly, in a loose way..like in Ikaria, where people respect the rythmes of nature and life....!)

Her relationship with music and dance was a very particular one... It is as if she was being transformed to a "flower", she would move her hands and body in a very "subtle" way, her dancing was smooth and full of heart...I remember she would tell me she prefers the dancing of islands and Asia Minor because the rythmes and body movement of island dancing was closer to a harmony she was able to feel... She was dancing island dances like a "Kariotina" (=Icarian woman) really, if you would see her in a panigiri, you would not understand that she was not from the island, only if she started talking to you, as her very good Greek had the typical - and melodical to me...- italian accent...!

I saw Nicoletta for the last time in Naples last May, in the first greek dance workshop organised there by Anna Lisa, another IkariaDance friend. She had come with other dancers from Milan, always smiling and happy and kind... She came to tell me discreetly that "this time" she would not be able to dance as her body was very weak from the disease which was torturing her. She just came for the "parea", she had been doing that the last year... She was around all the time listening to the music and participating with her heart and face... sometimes I would see her with the corner of my eye that she was trying to dance a little bit with her feet alone, even for one minute, silent and smiling in the corner, and I was thinking "Maybe now she can not, but once this therapy finishes, she shall surely can again...Let's not pressure her now...." During the "glendi" (Greak feast) organised the night, we danced together a tsifteteli, our last dance together, and she was very gentle moving and her mind was also somewhere else, I remember I thought "How light she is her dancing...like a feather...." and I tried to dance in the same way with her, to escort her well in our couple dancing...

Nicoletta had made us believe that she would surely survive out of this struggle, although we knew how serious the disease was, noone really ever believed that woman would go away... So, I remember when we danced "Symbethera" during the workshop, a dance that she loved a lot, I thought by myself " Let's not press her now to dance as a first dancer, since she is so weak, we shall do it in Ikaria, in August, when she shall be better...." And I didn't invite her to dance with me...And that moment I lost this last kariotikos dance with her, as in July she wrote to me at 06.00 a.m. one day that she was not feeling well and she would not be in a condition to travel to Ikaria for our IkariaDance Project...And then I knew... And I cried for our last kariotikos together not danced in Naples... You should always dance as if it is your last day, as the song says " Toύτ'η γης που την πατούμε, ούλοι μέσα θε να μπούμε"...Wise words that we do not realise them when we dance on them....It seems that life gave her enormous pain, but nobody ever understood it, as she would never complain...Until the end, she was admiring the little wonders of life, like the flowers, the animals, the dancing, the music, the language...I am really proud I met her and we became friends.

Nicoletta left us the second day of IkariaDance Project this year, on the 24th August. Claudia, her friend from Milan informed Flavia, and she came to tell me with Makis in my room early in the morning before we would leave for our excursion to Therma and Akamatra...I can not describe how I felt. As if a member of my family was gone.

Nicoletta had left as a last wish to her beloved husband Francesco that we do a "feast" for her and we dance for her. So, we did on the 28th August with Skantzakas, Yannis, Alexandros and Maria that knew her well...We tried to dance in smile, and we sang in smile, as she would like us to do, remembering that we are all passing from this life and we need to be the best human beings we can to our fellow people, to nature and to ourselves.

This was her example in life.

We shall try to follow this example...

We shall always keep her in our hearts...

And we shall always dance for her as well ...

We send all our love to her husband, family and friends....

Mε πολλή αγάπη για τη Νικολέτα μας,

Χριστιάνα - Christiana Katsarou

 Greek glendi in Milan. We dance the "Trata". Nikos Kouvaris, Ada Karoutsou, me, Domenico Coira and Nicoletta Battistella...

In a dance event in Milano with Domenico Coira. 

 In Hiphaistia dance workshops in Marseilles, France.

  In a Greek dance workshop in Geneve.

 In our last dance workshop in Naples, together with Martine Saget, Veronique Moret, Eileen Wilson and Flavia Passerini. May 2014. 

P.S.1> Checking the Greek Orthodox "name day" calendar, as we call it, the 24th of August, there are two Saints whose memories are  celebrated: Kosmas Aitolos and St Eftihios (Ιερομάρτυς Άγιος Ευτύχιος) Τhe name Eftihios is Greek means the "Happy one" in Modern Greek and "the one having good luck" in Ancient Greek…

P.S.2 > To all IkariaDance friends: These were some few photos I could find as I am really terrible with photo archives... If you happen to have photos with her  in your photo archives of past IkariaDance workshops, I would be thankful if you shared them with us. Thank you.