“Making up (for) lost heritage: an ethnographic study of dance, language and identity in London’s Greek Cypriot diaspora”

This thesis investigates the role of folk dance and language in the construction of ethnolinguistic identities within London’s Greek Cypriot diaspora. Employing in-depth linguistic and dance ethnography conducted across three Greek Cypriot dance schools in North London, the study examines how speaker-dancers negotiate their ethnolinguistic identities along a continuum of tradition and modernity.

The thesis challenges essentialist ideologies that equate ethnicity with linguistic proficiency, examining the language practices within a broader lens. Despite the language shift amongst the London’s speaker-dancers, this study demonstrates that dance rehearsals function as a counterhegemonic space in which ethnolinguistic identities are actively constructed, empowering the revitalization of heritage language along with other semiotic resources. Within these dance settings, participants synthesize their identities, drawing elements from various verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources constructing their hybrid identities productively and flexibly. Regardless their competencies in heritage language, their language practices demonstrate the diasporic creativity and adaptability. In parallel, the thesis examines the dance ideologies and practices of the speaker-dancers and their schools, challenging established forms and creating new forms.

The analysis foregrounds how competing ideological orientations Hellenocentrism and Cypriocentrism are resemanticised within the diasporic context, shaping language and dance practices in diverse ways. By examining dance rehearsals as sites of multimodal meaning-making, the study reveals how embodied practices can compensate for reduced heritage language proficiency, breaking stereotypes of linguistic hierarchies, and fostering ethnic pride, and continuity without the constrains of linguistic purity. Methodologically, the thesis advances sociolinguistic research by integrating dance ethnography, participant and non-participant observations, interviews, and multimodal analysis. This thesis argues that dance in diaspora and dance settings enables the emergence of new, fluid forms of Greek Cypriot identity within superdiverse environments.