The Greek ministry of culture will include Bulgarian ballet performance Zorba the Greek in the programme commemorating the 50th year since the death of Greece’s most famous writer Nikos Kazantzakis.

The performance of the Bulgarian dancers will accompany a charity campaign of the international association for HIV infected children in Africa and will be shown in Italy’s Rome in October 2007, netinfo.bg said.

National Opera and Ballet will present the ballet on June 12 2007 in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. The performance will be part of the annual arts salon.

Greek Mikis Theodorakis wrote the ballet, based on Kazantzakis’s novel Zorba the Greek in the late 80s. Years earlier, in 1965, the film Zorba the Greek by Michael Cacoyannis with Anthony Quinn starring, won three Oscar awards. The ballet and the theme music of the film made Theodorakis world-famous.