Participation Motives of French in Greek Traditional Dance Teaching Seminars Organised in France

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the reasons which drive French people to participate in taught seminars of Greek traditional dancing which are organized in France as well as to examine the demographic characteristics as differentiation factors of the attendance motives. For the collection of the study data the “Participation Motivation Questionnaire” by Gill, Gross & Huddleston was used after having been adapted to the particular needs of the study. In the study took part 215 individuals (n=215, m=16, f=191). A Factor and Reliability analysis, a frequency analysis, One–Way ANOVA, Man Whitney U test and elements of descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of the data. The improvement of the dancing dexterities, boredom rejection as well as relaxation from the daily routine, the acquisition of new experiences and practice are the most significant attendance motives in the relative seminars. Age and educational level of the sample do not constitute differential factors of the attendance motives. Men participate in a greater degree than women so as to get in touch with the Greek culture through dancing. Finally, individuals with many years of attendance are interested in improving their dancing level in a greater degree than individuals with few years of attendance. To sum up, we can infer that only gender and participation time are factors partly differentiating the motives of attendance.