(Coins from ancient Sybaris)

We are often asked where we got our name from or what it refers to. Here's the skinny from Brian, our in-house archaeologist:

The Legend of Sybaris:
The Pleasure Center

The ancient city of Sybaris was established as a Greek trading colony in the 8th century BC. It was located in the extremely fertile and rich coastal plain between the Selinus River and the Cernyties River in the arch of the boot of Italy. Because of its rich land and strategic trading location, it rapidly prospered to the point of rivaling Athens in wealth and size. It was clearly one of the greatests Greek cities in the 8th to the 6th centuries BC. It was celebrated as an opulent and beautiful city that imported the best wines from Italy. A large proportion of its citizens led lives of luxury and pleasure, and they were renowned for good wine, good entertainment, and good conversation, especially at their lavish festivities and banquets. Their renown as lovers of good times, music, dancing, food, and, wine was so pronounced that the term, "sybarite," became synonymous with these qualities. They gave crowns to the best chefs, they were the first in the Classical world to include women in public celebrations, and they even taught horses to dance! If they could do that, we modern musical Sybarites aspire to involve every person in our dances, no matter what their experience or abilities!

One account of a ancient Sybarite marriage feast described by Hippolochus, is well worth recounting as an example of what we might aspire to:

Caranus celebrated his marriage by inviting 20 men who were immediated presented with silver cups to use and keep as their own. Each guest was crowned with a gold tiara. They were served chickens, ducks, doves, geese, hares, goats, pigeons, turtle doves, partridges, and many such viands piled high, the leftovers being distributed among the attending slaves. They washed their hands when finished and were given numerous chaplets made of all kinds of flowers with gold tiaras. Then they toasted until they had pleasantly taken leave of all sobriety, at which point flute girls and singers and Rhodian Sambuca players entered and performed. Other girls also entered carrying each two jars, one silver and the other gold, containing perfume. And they gave these jars to each guest.

After that, they brought in and presented to each guest a silver platter large enough to hold a large whole roast pig. And these platter contained thrushes, ducks, warblers, pureed peas poured over eggs, oysters and scallops. They drank again and received a kid, piping hot on a platter like the last, with spoons of gold. Then Caranus ordered baskets made of plaited ivory strips to be given to each guest to contain their gifts. They received more crowns and a double jar of gold and silver containing perfume like the first set.

Then in trooped Ithyphallic dancers, clowns, naked female jugglers who performed with swords and blew fire from their mouths. After these had finished, three wines and large gold cups were given to each guest. Then crystal platters in silver receptacles and filled with all sorts of baked fish were given to each guest. They washed their hands and again received even larger gold tiaras than the first and another set of perfume jars.

After drinking a six-pint bowl of Thasian wine, a chorus of 100 entered singing a wedding hymn, followed by dancing girls attired as Nereids and Nymphs. When the curtains were opened, there stood Cupids, Dianas, Pans and Hermae holding lights in silver brackets. More boars were served to each guest on silver platters and the guests' baskets were stuffed full until the customary trumpeting announced the end of the banquet. Before departing, more drinking and deserts were served involving cakes of every kind. The guests left Caranus' banquet carrying a fortune in gifts that they used to buy houses, lands, and slaves.

Such was the opulence of Sybaris! Unfortunately, it did not last beyond the 6th century BC. The port silted up, trading routes changed, competition arose, and Sybaris slipped into the earth forever. But its name and spirit still lives on, and can be accessed at many of our contradances. For more details you can check out Orville Bullitt's book, "Search for Sybaris" (Lippincott, 1969).

Taking our inspiration from the ancient Sybarites, we do our best to provide everyone who attends our dances with the utmost pleasurable dancing and music experiences. The Sybs, as the band is often referred to, are renowned for sending contradancers into a sybaritic frenzy that has them returning to dances again and again. Our dances are also famous for the refreshing plates of fruit that we provide for dancers to "feast" on while they wait to reenter the dance line (for the uninitiated, this is a peculiarity of contradancing). So if you've never been to a contradance, come join us and add a new dimension to your musical and literary vocabulary.

We also encourage other dancers or performers to provide a taste of their arts during our breaks. Past performers include African drumming, belly dancing, morris dancing, Scandinavian dancing and a fiddle orchestra composed of young folks, to name a few. If you would like to put on a brief performance at one of our breaks, please contact us (click here). All forms of music and dance are welcome.