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，我将调查民间舞蹈和散居社区的民族语言认同之间的联系，探索如何与舞蹈的非物质文化遗产进行接触，以弥补在散居地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其子女学习希腊语，将其作为一种传统语言，包括塞浦路斯希腊方言，以便能够与家庭中的年长成员进行交流，并保持文化和族裔身份，但社区的年轻成员在学习这两种语言方面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。这方面的一个例子是民间舞蹈，这是在几个有组织的团体教授。我将探讨如何利用民间舞蹈作为一种策略，以克服征服希腊作为社区的遗产语言的困难，使参与者可以谈判他们的散居归属感，并觉得他们是他们的“想象的社区”的成员。我还将探讨如何与民间舞蹈的传统已经在伦敦，周围的意识形态和对舞蹈的态度，以及他们如何涉及到生活在伦敦的希族塞人社区的身份认同的希族塞人散居地内演变。

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.