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Speaker Profile Προφίλ ηχείου
Paraskevi Thurban
| Language: Greek
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Speaker background

Occupation: Dance Instructor, teacherYear of arrival: 1964

Paraskevi (Paroula) was born on the island of Lemnos in 1944. Her parents were refugees from Asia Minor. She was one of six children, all of whom migrated to Australia following the death of their father. After her arrival, Paroula began teaching Greek at a school run by the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales. Her reputation for dancing developed from her experience in education. Paroula is a mainstay of the Greek community in Sydney, and has created a strong connection between the diaspora and Greek dancing.

Location in AustraliaBelmore

Interview summary

Paroula discusses her childhood aspiration to study and the difficulties brought about by her father’s illness. She explains the circumstances that prompted her family to migrate to Australia. She recalls her reasons for leaving a well-paid office job at a newspaper to pursue Greek language teaching and dance. 

Interview highlights

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Paroula discusses the beginnings of her career as a Greek dance teacher

Paroula: I started to teach alongside the Greek language teaching at Lewisham school, which had a lot of children. Then the mothers started to encourage me to find a space. So, I would start to do private lessons, because there were other teachers in Sydney, but they weren’t satisfied with them. ‘The children go, and they don't learn, but the little bits you do with them they do.’ Anyway, that’s how we found the Scouts Hall in Dulwich Hill, and I started teaching on Saturday mornings. I started for a couple of hours, but after a while, I would start at nine and finish at three. Every hour was different. There were children that came from all over Sydney

Timecode 16:04 - 16:51
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Paroula talks about how she learned to dance

Paroula: I didn’t have time to do anything but dancing. Dancing for me was … and don't forget, I am almost self-taught. I learned some dances in high school. I had a wonderful teacher [...] And then, I had my friend Patra Patrikarea, who was here in Australia with her husband … and when they went to Greece, I would beg her to send me videos of traditional dances and music. And that’s how I learned. All night I would be dancing. I wasn’t interested in sleeping or resting. If I had a new video, I’d spend whole nights learning the steps. And that’s why it saddens me when they sometimes say that I make up the dances. How do I make them up? I wasn’t in Greece to go from one place to the next and to learn the steps and then teach them to the children. But we succeeded in bringing Greek dancing to a very good level in Australia. Not only myself, but also the other teachers like Mrs Haskas, Mary Nasibian, Nancy Karouana, Mr Petsinis, who had come from Russia, we did something …

Interviewer: You are all pioneers in Australia.

Paroula: And I tried to build Greek dancing, to raise it up, to not stay with the karagouna and the yiatro [traditional dances], but I used the music that made Greek music well known internationally, like Zorba. Why wouldn’t I teach Zorba? I was the first who presented the Zorba and I heard a lot of backlash then: ‘Oh Paroula danced Zorba’ etc. But even then, my brothers were the first zorbades who went out on TV with [Helen] Zerefos and danced Greek dances.

Interviewer: And where did you find the costumes? Did you make them here or from Greece?

Paroula: Here, with a lot of difficulty. But for me, blue and white worked. A blue skirt and white are the colours of the flag. And there I heard a lot of comments: ‘Oh Mrs Paroula doesn’t have costumes.’ But now I have a house full of costumes. And luckily my daughter continues. But if she didn’t, what would happen with all these clothes?

Timecode 22:40 - 25:35

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