The last time Bill Duddy danced the Hasaposervicka, the Tsamika or the Syrtaki was 47 years ago when he went to the annual dance sponsored by St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor. Saturday night he’ll be doing them again, holding the hand of Athena Cox, the same woman he danced with all those years ago.

“And, I’ve been practicing ever since,” Duddy joked last week.

Cox and Duddy were among a dozen people who gathered to practice traditional Greek dances in the basement of northern Maine’s only Greek Orthodox Church on Sanford Street in Bangor. This year’s Greek Community Dance will be held at 8 p.m. in the Peabody Campus Center on the Husson College campus.

“I think that dance we went to was right here in this church basement,” recalled Cox. “We were engaged, but decided we were just two young to get married, and went our separate ways. Now, we’re dating and dancing again.”

After that dance in 1954, Duddy and Cox married other people, had families, careers and grandchildren. They started seeing each other again after their spouses died a few years ago.

Each year, church members hold classes in the weeks leading up to the dance. Not only does it help people learn the traditional steps, it also builds excitement for the event in the community and is an opportunity to share a little Greek culture.

Lambros Karris was born in Greece and immigrated to the United States as a teen-ager. In addition to teaching Greek dance every year before the annual church fund-raiser, he is the chanter at St. George’s and teaches psychology at Husson. He learned the dances as a child.

“The majority of Greek dances are line dances. If you want to join in, you just cut in between two people. Don’t expect anyone to come and ask you to dance,” he warned.

Karris explained that the dances are named for regions of the country or for professions. The Hasaposervika, the national dance of Greece, is also called the butcher’s dance. The Syrtaki is the sailor’s dance and the Tsamik is the mountain or rebel dance.

Bonnie White of Sacramento, Calif., joined her sister Sandie Dubay of Old Town for the practice session. This will make the third year Dubay has attended the event, but the first time White, who’s visiting her native state this month, has done a Greek dance.

Karris urged the group to show passion when they dance, but to take small steps and short hops to conserve their energy. The rebel dance, he said, was for young men so they can “show off how high they can jump and how young they are.”

Nick Dimoulas of Stillwater is one of the young men Karris referred to. The 11-year-old has been going to the dance for as long as he can remember, and plans to be there again Saturday night.

“I like the jumping and the movement in the dances,” he said during a break. “It’s very creative.”

The event also will have something few dances today boast – a live band. The Boston-based Hellenic Stars Orchestra, featuring Kostas Haloulakos, will play traditional as well as modern Greek music.

As the practice session wound down, Karris offered a few last words of advice.

“Let your emotions out,” he urged. “Remember: At the end of the movie, ‘Zorba the Greek,’ when they have lost all the money they’ve invested, when they are surrounded by disaster, they ask, ‘What are we going to do now?’ And Zorba replies, ‘We dance.'”

Considering world events, it sounds like good advice.

The Fall 2001 Greek Community Dance will be held 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Peabody Campus Center on the Husson College campus in Bangor. Tickets cost $20 per person and $10 for children under 12. Coffee and Greek hors d’oeuvres will be served. 827-4579.