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

在我的博士研究中，我将研究散居社区中民间舞蹈与民族语言认同之间的联系，探索如何利用舞蹈的非物质文化遗产来弥补散居社区中所观察到的遗产语言的逐渐丧失。我的研究将集中在英国的希族塞人社区。虽然希族塞人家庭的目标是让他们的孩子学习希腊语作为一种遗产语言，包括塞浦路斯希腊语方言，以便能够与家庭的年长成员交流，并保持文化和种族特征，但社区年轻成员在学习这两种语言时面临的困难促使他们通过其他形式的文化表达来探索和构建自己的身份。民间舞蹈就是一个例子，它是在几个有组织的团体中教授的。我将探讨如何利用民间舞蹈作为一种策略来克服征服希腊语作为社区遗产语言的困难，以便参与者可以协商他们的散居归属感，并感到他们是“想象社区”的成员。我还将探讨与民间舞蹈有关的传统如何在伦敦的希族塞人侨民中演变，围绕舞蹈的意识形态和态度，以及它们如何与生活在伦敦的希族塞人社区的身份相关联。

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.