CIRCLE DANCE HOLIDAY AT PILION CENTRE, GREECE
FRIDAY 4 - FRIDAY 11 SEPTEMBER, 2009
Led by Paul Boizot
A week to both relax and dance, sharing circle dance together in a beautiful, peaceful environment, but with plenty of time to enjoy the nearby beaches, and wooded mountain walks.
Some dance experience is needed - Circle Dance or World Dance; or International Folk Dance if you are happy to fit in with the different approach taken in Circle Dance. I teach both IFD and Circle Dance, but please note this is not an IFD holiday. 
This event ran for the first time in Sept. 2007 at the Pilion Centre – not far away from our 2009 venue.
Venue  Beach not too far away (about 3 miles/ 5Km), walks, woods....Have a look at the Kalikalos website for lots of detail. The centre is run on a non-profit basis, and has an ethos which values building community - as part of this, dancers are expected to contribute 4 to 5 hours help during the week with activities such as washing up, food preparation, cleaning, watering the garden and so on. This also keeps the cost down. Expect to be on afternoon cooking rota for the evening meal at least once during the week - probably no more than once if the venue is fairly full. We are all expected to participate in a cleanup on the final morning - please bear this in mind regarding your flight times! See the Centre's facilities page for more on all this. 
Accommodation  
The Centre's main building is a small hotel or large guest house (Xenonas, in Greek) located at the edge of the village of Kissos in the Pilion Mountains of Greece. Pension Martiou is built upon a two floor stone house of Pelion traditional architecture, dated about 150 years old and restored by the present owner's father. The house is surrounded by a garden which includes rosebushes, hydrangeas, jasmine and other species planted and tended with love and affection by the Martiou family for many decades. 
The basic price is for a shared room at the Centre. NB initial maximum numbers for this event are 12, possibly able to take more when details of new group room are finalised in 2009. 
•	14 beds in seven bedrooms, some ensuite, some with shared toilets and showers.  
•	Several ensuite single rooms in Kissos village, a 5-minute walk from the Centre 
•	Possibility of tent accommodation, though September may get some rainy weather - discuss with the Centre! 
See Kalikalos' accommodation page for all the options, photos, and more detail. 
Meals All meals are provided and included in the price. We are all expected to provide some help, including with the cooking of at least one evening meal - see Venue above. As the cooking is generally done by the community - staff, participants, and guests - they usually stick to basic tasty, vegetarian meals using mainly local produce. You can see some typical menus on the Kalikalos website. 
A buffet breakfast and a main meal (usually dinner) is provided. Lunch is a snack meal, generally a beach picnic box consisting of bread, butter/marge, olives, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and fruit. Once a week the staff have a day off from coordinating a main meal, so most people eat out that evening at one of the local tavernas, where a basic meal with a glass of wine runs to about £9.00 (€11.00). NB The taverna meal is not included in the basic price of the holiday. 
Prices & booking details Charge for the week, including everything except your travel (i.e. flights and associated transfers to and from Pilion) and a taverna meal out, is £325/€450 Euros for shared accommodation. 
The basic price provides accommodation in a double/twin or triple or quad room. There is a double/twin room guarantee supplement of £50/€75. There is a low-season single room supplement of £100/€150.  These are payable in advance along with your deposit of £100/€150. There may be a reduction of £20/€30 for tent occupancy providing that you bring your own tent, sleeping bag, foam mattress, towel and (if desired) pillow - tent space is not guaranteed, so check with Kalikalos.
You can either pay your deposit plus any room supplements, or pay the full amount in advance. Bookings can be made in several ways - please enquire for more details;
1. via the Centre's booking page on their website, using a credit card or Paypal. NB although UK/European dancers will be charged in GBP or Euros, the operating price of the payment processor is US dollars. You will therefore be charged the current GBP or Euros equivalent of the $175 dollar deposit, and any discrepancy will be made up when you arrive at the Centre. As an example, on 14 January 2009 the deposit worked out at £126.89. Even if you intend to pay by another method, the website shows you the various things to include in the price - room supplements, discounts for overland travel, etc.
2. by sterling cheque to me  - Paul Boizot, 39 Hamilton Drive East, York YO24 4DW, UK.
3. by cheque (payable to the Holly Foundation) to Johanna Aro Louis, 19 Blarmore Avenue, Inverness IV3 8QT, Scotland.
4. by direct transfer to a Kalikalos bank account.
For prices for children and for guests not attending workshops please see the Kalikalos Families and Guests page. 
Reduced rates apply for Greeks, and residents of other countries where the standard of living is considerably lower than in the developed countries of N. Europe and N. America. There is a 10% discount given for booking two consecutive workshop weeks and there is a 5% discount for traveling overland and reducing our carbon footprint. A limited number of partial bursaries and work-exchanges are available for those whose financial resources are limited. 
You can also spend an extra week at the Centre without particiapating in a workshop, subject to space being available. The rate for full board in 2008 was £175/€250 per week (£25/€40 per day).  
Getting there The Kalikalos Summer School at Xenonas Martiou is located at the edge of the village of Kissos, just over four miles (7 km) from the sea, and 27 miles (40km) east of Volos, Greece's 6th largest city. Volos itself is 4 hours by bus from Athens, 2.5 hours from Thessaloniki and 80 minutes by “Flying Dolphin” hydrofoil from the island of Skiathos.  
There are many different ways to travel to the Centre. There are regular flights to the nearby island of Skiathos from many UK airports, flights to Thessaloniki and Athens, some last-minute direct flights to Volos, and the friendly local taxi service - or possibly minibus share - to bring you from Volos. For people with time to spare, there are improved road and rail connections. See the Kalikalos travel page for full details, map, etc. 
Do note though that you will be unlikely to just get a standard budget airline flight from the UK for £50 each way! Some budget airlines do go to Athens now, but only from the south of England, and it is a longer trip than Spain or France. Look at the Kalikalos travel page for a full range of options - they say, for example, that flights to Skiathos/Volos depart from London Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle. The published fares range from £169 to £289 for one or two week charters....Typical return fares to Athens/Thessaloniki on Easy Jet from London run as low as £140 if booked well in advance. 
I flew to Thessaloniki in 2007 for around £200 return, having waited to book the flight till a few weeks before the event, then got the KTEL bus to Volos. The majority of our party booked earlier and flew in to nearby Skiathos, paying around £280 return. I think the Centre's charges are low enough to make this still a reasonably priced event. 
Dates & Times Friday 4 - Friday 11 September 2009. Fridays are arrival and departure days. Dance sessions run from the Saturday to the Thursday. We will be expected to spend some time clearing up on the final Friday morning, so please take this into account regarding your travel times.
Programme  I want to strike a balance between time spent dancing and time spent relaxing and enjoying the centre, its surroundings, and each other's company.  
The basic plan is to dance in the mornings when it is cooler - though the Centre is quite temperate for Greece, and September is past the hottest weather. Afternoons will mainly be mostly for relaxing, walking, visiting the beach. Then we will usually dance again in the early evening before supper. 
There can be other options, apart from dancing, if any participants want them - in 2007 we had a singing session where each of us brought a song along, and I will certainly come equipped with lyrics for some simpler Circle/Folk dance songs. 
About me  I live in York, UK,  and have taught dance since 1992. I have been told I am very clear in my teaching, and I like to teach with some humour. My choreographies include Ever-Flowing Spring, Wise Maid, Twilight, Hoireann O, Klezmer Waltz, Truvisqueira, Turning Point and Butterfly Jig. I particularly like Balkan (including Rom/Gypsy), Romanian and Greek traditional dances as well as some modern and meditational ones. I am interested in how the whole body is used in dance - using dance to improve posture, and vice-versa. I also sing, drum and play bouzouki. 
Further details Paul Boizot, 39 Hamilton Drive East, York YO24 4DW
01904 621510 info@paulboizot.co.uk                                           Updated 14.1.09