The Hellenic Dancers of NJ 2025 Taverna Night Dinner Dance
Presents live music with Anemos Music Project and Supports New Scholarship Fund
On Saturday, February 8, 2025, The Hellenic Dancers of NJ (HDNJ) present its 2025 Taverna Night dinner dance, at 6 pm in the Cultural Center at Kimisis Tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church, 20 Hillcrest Road in Holmdel, NJ. Dance the night away to live music provided by Anemos Music Project! Tickets for this BYOB event are: $45 adults; $30 students (13 – 18); $20 children 12 and under, and includes a full buffet dinner and dessert. Reservations may be made via hdnj1972.square.site. Tickets WILL NOT be sold at the door – please RSVP by January 24th. All proceeds from the 2025 Taverna Night will assist HDNJ in establishing a scholarship fund as well as support the troupe’s 2024 – 2025 touring schedule. A 501 (c)3 nonprofit, HDNJ is funded in part by Monmouth Arts, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners. All donations are tax-deductible.
“After the success of the 50th Anniversary Gala, the Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey are entering the 2025 Annual Taverna Night energized to showcase dances and clothing from various Hellenic regions,” said Nikos Vosinas, Artistic Director. The 2025 Taverna Night performance presents dances from Asia Minor, Pontos, Macedonia, the islands of Kefalonia, Crete, Kythnos, and Tzia, and The Republic of Cyprus. The performance wardrobe includes many newly acquired traditional pieces and represents over 20 different Greek regions such as Trikeri (Thessaly), Kymi (Evia), Olympos (Karpathos), Abliani (Evrytania), Tegea (Arkadia), Kalymnos, and others.
For the first time, HDNJ is establishing a scholarship fund to support its college-bound dancers. “Education has always been one of the pillars of the Hellenic Dancers,” said HDNJ Board President Edmund Haliotis. “Since the organization’s inception, our founder, Mrs. C [Eleni Chakalos], had always expressed that education comes first, before performances, practices, and everything else.” As college tuition costs continuously rise throughout the United States, the organization wants to support its dancers who are embarking on this important life-stage. The goal is to present two scholarships in May 2025.
Founded in 1972 by Fr. Jim and Eleni Chakalos, HDNJ began as a small local dance group with 12 dancers. As the first organization of its kind in New Jersey, 2000+ dancers have learned and performed with HDNJ during its 53-year history. HDNJ has amassed a repertoire of over 350 Greek folk dances from every corner of the Greek world including Macedonia, Thrace, Thessaly, Crete, the various island groups, the Republic of Cyprus, and Pontos, Ikonion and Cappadocia (found in current day Turkey). Combined with regional music and dress, as well as the enthusiasm of the dancers, an HDNJ performance is something not to be missed!
HDNJ’s dedication to Greek culture is more than simply memorizing steps and footwork. The dance troupe strives to learn the stories, dialectical differences, cultural practices, traditional attire, and much more of each region’s population and repertoire. Functioning as a kind of “living history” organization, the Hellenic Dancers perform and preserve the folk dance customs of Greece for future generations.
HDNJ is nationally recognized for its presentation of Greek folk dance traditions and has performed at a number of local and national events including: Dukakis Presidential Rally, Inaugural Festivities for former President Ronald Reagan, Statue of Liberty Weekend Grand Finale, 20/20 ABC Television Program, Queens College of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies Benefit, O. Elytis Chair of Modern Greek Studies at Rutgers University Benefit, the NJ State Ethnic and Diversity Festival, for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew upon his first official visit to New Jersey, and Greek Heritage Day with the Metrostars. Members of the troupe participated in the Closing Ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece and at the 2006 Centennial Epiphany celebrations in Tarpon Springs, FL. HDNJ is also a founding member organization of the Federation of Hellenic American Organizations of New Jersey.
