Hellenic Pammachon Alliance & the Ακαδημία Ακριτών will be marching at the Greek Independence Day Parade in Tarpon Springs, FL on March 20th

By: Eric Hill

The 2016 Greek Independence Day Parade in Tarpon Springs, FL is on Sunday, March 20th at 1 pm. The Hellenic Pammachon Alliance non-profit & the Ακαδημία Ακριτών will be marching again. I am proud to announce that we have completed demonstration preparations via remote video collaboration with Πάμμαχον headmaster Kostas Pammachon Dervenis in Greece (who I should mention has received awards from NATO, the Hellenic Airforce and Hellenic Military for his role in training soldiers in hand-to-hand combat).

This demonstration of “Πάμμαχον: The 19th Century Tradition of Greece and Ancestral Lands” is intended to do the following:

1. Display, through the children (9-12), how we teach proper movement to adults and youth via the empty hand 8 Movements & Parry Set combined with the Κοντάρι (traditional Greek staff) Set.
2. Show more advanced  work with myself and several of my youth students
3. Adult only (me) transition to the empty hands and μαχαίρι (knife) where one can easily see how a knife was drawn from the traditional sash (Cretan and Pontian Greeks still wear blades on their dance costume sashes) as well as the relevance of the Sport Pammachon module for adult training as well as always considering hidden weapons (defense especially) in one’s regimen.
4. Κάμα – the traditional Greek short sword. There is still an extant Greek war dance (Πυρρίχιος) where participants utilize the Κάμα. Here you will see how to actually use it. If you watch closely, you will see how it correlates to everything mentioned in 1,2&3 above.
5. Present lesser known traditional Hellenic music to the Hellenic Diaspora and the general crowd. 1&2 will be to the music of the Αναστενάρια. 3 will be to Παλαίστρα and 4 the Μαχαίρια (from the extant Greek war dance with the Κάμα). All of this music is very, very old.

If you want to be sure to see the whole demo, join us between 11 am and 1 pm as we prepare to march. We will be performing the whole demonstration. We will also perform where the parade participants disperse. On parade stops, we will also start the demonstration, but there is no guarantee that it will be completed at any given stop.

Ζήτω η Ελλάδα!!!