Making up (for) lost heritage: folk dancing, language and identity in the UK's Greek Cypriot diaspora

In my doctoral research, I will investigate the connection between folk dancing and ethnolinguistic identity in diasporic communities, exploring how engaging with the intangible cultural heritage of dance may be found to compensate for the gradual loss of heritage languages as observed in diasporas. My research will focus on the UK's Greek Cypriot community. Though the goal of Greek Cypriot families is for their children to learn Greek as a heritage language, including the Cypriot Greek dialect, in order to enable communication with older members of the families and preserve cultural and ethnic identity, the difficulties younger members of the community face in learning the two varieties drives them to explore and construct their identity through other forms of cultural expression. An example of this is folk dancing, which is taught in several organised groups. I will explore how folk dancing is utilised as a strategy to overcome the difficulty of conquering Greek as the community's heritage language so that participants can negotiate their diasporic belonging and feel that they are members of their 'imagined community'. I will also explore how the traditions related to folk dancing have evolved within the Greek Cypriot diaspora in London, ideologies around and attitudes towards dances, and how they pertain to the identity of the Greek Cypriot community living in London.