DENTAL HIGH JINKS : DANCER ENTERTAINS AT FESTIVAL.Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer George Alexiades is billed as the man with jaws of steel. Clenching clenching (klen´ching), n the nonfunctional, forceful intermittent application of the mandibular teeth against the maxillary teeth. It can become habitual and cause damage to the periodontium. two tables weighing a combined 75 pounds in his teeth, the Greek dancer spins and twirls until the tablecloth stretches parallel to the floor. Sometimes he'll set a small child on top, much to the delight of parents. The twin-table technique is his signature move when performing the traditional Greek table dance. ``I started with one table, and it kind of got boring having one table in my mouth for five minutes,'' said Alexiades, who refused to reveal his age. ``What do you do with a table? You dance, you spin it and it ceased to be entertaining,'' he said. ``But the two tables prolonged the act - it kept people interested.'' The public can catch the Montecito resident's act today at 1:45 and 4 p.m. at the Ventura County Greek Festival A Greek festival or Greek Fest is an annual celebration of Greek culture presented by many ethnic Greek-American communities and organization in the United States and Canada, particularly Greek Orthodox churches. at Conejo Creek Park North in Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. . The festival is sponsored by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Church Independent Eastern Orthodox church of Greece. The term is sometimes used erroneously for Eastern Orthodoxy in general. It remained under the patriarch of Constantinople until 1833, when it became independent. in Camarillo and is free to the public. Alexiades came to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. at age 17 from Athens, Greece, and traveled for a year before graduating from high school in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, and Columbia University Columbia University, mainly in New York City; founded 1754 as King's College by grant of King George II; first college in New York City, fifth oldest in the United States; one of the eight Ivy League institutions. , where he studied naval architecture and liberal arts. Finally, he enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with campuses located at 120 Madison Avenue in New York City (in a landmark building designed by famed architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club) and 1336 North La Brea Avenue in to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor. He performed in several off-Broadway productions before coming to Hollywood in 1963. But when his acting career sputtered and his family began to grow, Alexiades moved to Santa Barbara in 1969 and within a year opened a Greek restaurant - the Plaka, the name of an old section of Athens in the shadow of the Acropolis acropolis (əkrŏp`əlĭs) [Gr.,=high point of the city], elevated, fortified section of various ancient Greek cities. The Acropolis of Athens, a hill c.260 ft (80 m) high, with a flat oval top c. . ``It was like the Greenwich Village of Athens,'' he said. He sold the restaurant in 1994. Somewhere during his years as a struggling actor he began to dance. In 1967, a friend named Louis Kondounas - the Greek Table Dancer, in those days, Alexiades says - asked Alexiades to fill in for him at a Palo Alto nightclub while he danced in the Broadway musical ``Illya Darling'' with the late actress Melina Mercouri. Alexiades agreed, and he and another friend spent the next six months performing traditional Greek dances at the nightclub. ``One night I started to drink a little bit and I was dancing and excited and I had a lot of energy, and I was looking at Louis' table and I said, if he can do it I could do it,'' he said. He picked up the table in his teeth and danced away - all to the audience's delight. He subsequently performed the table dance at his restaurant, where he had set up a stage. In 1985, he took the act - which he had refined over the years - across the country on a three-month tour. During the dance he holds one table in his teeth and puts another on top, spinning it so fast that the table cloth is level with the floor, he said. ``Once in a while, I will put some child on top and dance and the parents will take pictures,'' he said. So how does a table dancer maintain his edge? Alexiades works out three hours a day at a local gym and keeps his jaw muscles strong by biting down on cork. And it can't be just any table - it has to be made of soft wood like pine, which won't slip out of his mouth while twirling Twirling is any of several artforms, hobbies, or sport and recreational activities accomplished by spinning or rotating the twirled object either for exercise, or in a rhythmic, or otherwise artful manner. . ``It can't be ebony, it'll grind down your teeth,'' he said. And you need a good set of teeth, he adds. ``You can't do it if you have caps.'' He performs every Friday at the Greek at the Harbor restaurant in Ventura Harbor Village and at affairs like the Ventura County Greek Festival. ``And being an actor I like applause,'' he said. ``I tell these people if you're not going to applaud, I'm not going to do it.'' THE FESTIVAL WHAT: Ventura County Greek Festival, sponsored by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. WHEN: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. WHERE: Conejo Creek Park North, east of the Moorpark Freeway off the Janss Road exit. COST: Free. INFORMATION: (818) 889-5209 CAPTION(S): Photo, Box Photo: (color) George Alexiades dances with a wooden t able in his teeth Saturday for an audience at the Greek Festival in Thousand Oaks. Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News Box: The Festival (see text) |
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