Inaugural “Rizes Showcase & Hellenic Dance Festival” in Texas

FORT WORTH, TEXAS: . – The inaugural ‘Rizes Showcase & Hellenic Dance Festival’ was hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Fort Worth, TX, on January 25-26. Vasiliki Malamatos, founder and director of the Festival, spoke to The National Herald about this phenomenal Festival.

“I am the Greek dance director at my church, St. Demetrios in Fort Worth, TX. Our dance ministry hosted the Rizes Hellenic Dance Festival. I am the director of the event. This was the inaugural year of Rizes HDF. St. Demetrios GOC in Fort Worth will continue to host Rizes HDF every single year. The first Annual HDF took place January 25-26 in Fort Worth. It was a Greek folk dance competition centered around faith, dance, tradition, and fellowship. The event is a parish level event. And the first-ever type of Hellenic Dance Festival in the area.”

“We had participants from four cities attend, with seven teams in total, St. Demetrios GOC of Fort Worth, TX, the hosting parish, brought three teams; St. George GOC of Albuquerque, NM, brought two teams; St. John the Baptist of Euless, TX, brought one team; and there was one team, The Olympians, from Houston, TX,” Malamatos said.

“Among those present for the Glendi and to watch the performances were groups who traveled up from Corpus Christi, Waco, Austin, and Houston, TX,” she noted.

“We had dancers ages 5-65 participating,” Malamatos said. “We had three children’s teams, and four adult teams perform.”

“The event began at 9 AM at St. Demetrios GOC in Fort Worth with a coffee social hour and an Agiasmo Service and Orthodox Faith Session Sermon led by Fr. Nicholas Hadzellis,” Malamatos continued. “Then the competition/performances took place from 12-4 PM. We then had vespers service at St. Demetrios, followed by the Glendi at 7 PM. There was dinner, the awards ceremony, dancing and fun.”

“The next day, Sunday, all teams attended Liturgy at hosting parish St. Demetrios and we ended the weekend with a Cretan dance workshop after coffee hour,” Malamatos said. “The day was wonderful and we had about 230 people in attendance. We are expected to at least double in size next year. We are expecting at least eight cities to attend for Rizes HDF 2026 in Fort Worth, TX! We look forward to the growth of Rizes HDF and continuing to preserve hellenic tradition in the South Central Region of the United States.”

From THE NATIONAL HERALD