What is philoxenia?
“Love of strangers.”
My name, Xenia (and the basis of ‘philoxenia’) is the ancient Greek tradition of hospitality and welcoming.
The concept of philoxenia dates back to Ancient Greece where individuals and households held this tradition in great honor. Ancient Greeks believed that visitors who showed up at their door unannounced could be a god visiting them in disguise looking for food and shelter. If they treated these strangers well, Greek god Zeus would reward their acts of kindness and hospitality.
Not to get all “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” on you all…
but the word “xenophobia” comes from the greek word “xenos” which means stranger, and a phobia is a phobia it’s a “fear”… so FEAR of STRANGERS. There you go.
Xenophobia → FEAR of strangers
Philoxenia → LOVE of strangers
Why Philoxenia?
I think often about how my parents wanted to originally name me “Emily,” and how thankful I am they changed their minds! Though I may get sick of having to go through the same pronunciation conversations with people I meet (it’s pronounced “ks-enia”) I never once wished I was named anything else.
I feel like my life’s work is to honor my namesake, and when you take my full name…
Xenia Constance Mansour
…you get an incredibly honorable and challenging namesake to look up to!
→ “Xenia” is hospitality & welcoming
→ “Constance” is steadfast & consistency in Greek
→ And “Mansour” is Arabic (my Lebanese roots), which means “He who is victorious”
Put it together… A hospitable and steadfast individual who is victorious.
I see philoxenia as an attitude of the heart. Our heart can expand when we open ourselves up to strangers and those we don’t know… or things we don’t know.
Stranger, for our definition, is just another word for fear, uncertainty, and the unknown.
If we can learn to WELCOME IN the unknown, the foreign, and the fear that arises in our bodies (our main home) then perhaps we learn to embrace the LOVE of the unknown.
Movement & Dance are the mediums in which can welcome in the fear. Movement is the hospitality we get to give our bodies so that the stranger, fear, uncertainty, or unknown we experience can start to shift from:
Fear to LOVE
Fear to CURIOSITY
Fear to OPENNESS
Philoxenia Movement LLC is a nexus of dance and movement, delivering private instruction, choreography, performance, and consultation services.
