This year, Lajkonik travelled to Poland to attend the XI Rzeszow Festival for the fourth consecutive time. It was the second time Lajkonik attended the Festival independently as Lajkonik, but the first time with a full complement of 8 pairs. I am proud to say that I was the Artistic Director, and Bozena Pagin, the Project Manager.

By way of background and for the record, Lajkonik went to Rzeszow in 1996 but only with a small contingent of 5 dancers. We then joined with other dance Ensembles to go to Rzeszow in 1999 as part of “SYDNEY” (We call it Mark I). I was the Assistant Artistic Director. In 2002, “SYDNEY” Mark II was formed as a joint project with other Ensembles again – I was the Artistic Director of that Ensemble as well and Daniel Gadd, the Assistant Artistic Director.

It felt fantastic to finally arrive in Rzeszow on Wednesday 19 July, after having lots of relax time in Vienna, Prague, Zakopane and Krakow (see earlier articles in Puls Polonii by Bozena Pagin) over the course of two and a half weeks.

Po Koncercie Galowym

But worrying thoughts came into my head – will they remember the dances? Will they be fit enough after such a long break? Will they be motivated? After all, the troupe that we were taking on this occasion was in the main a fairly young and less experienced troupe.

Throughout that Wednesday, to Rzeszow they came - from all different parts of Poland, depending on where they had spent their week off with their respective families. One family and some of the boys had already taken up residence in the “Akademik Akapit” which is where our Ensemble was to stay at the Rzeszow University Campus.

By evening, everyone had arrived and I breathed a sigh of relief. The problem was we only had 8 pairs and no reserves – every single person was a critical element of the team. A festival rule is that each ensemble was represented by a minimum of 8 couples.

We had our first group meeting on the Wednesday night, and afterwards, most of Lajkonik spent the rest of the evening making friends with other dance ensembles, and generally just “hanging around”.

Oberek

Jasiu Pogonowski also arrived on Wednesday evening. I must tell you about Jasiu. Over the 15 years of Lajkonik’s existence, from time to time we have enjoyed the professional expertise and assistance of Jasiu Pogonowski.

Jasiu is Senior Choreographer with the well-renowned Ensemble Jawor (Agricultural Academy of Lublin), and has visited Australia three times to teach us dances from various regions of Poland. A significant part of Lajkonik’s repertoire is featured by Jasiu’s beautiful choreographies.

Jasiu came to Rzeszow (as he has before) to help us polish up on two of his dances that had been selected for the Festival ie Bialy Mazur and Kujawiak-Oberek. It is always wonderful to see him, and to have him work with us.

The next two days, Thursday and Friday, were very intensive, and in the space of time, all the many activities have blurred into my memory.

We had our first rehearsal with Janusz Chojecki, the Festival’s Artistic Director, and also the Artistic Director of Mazowsze. This rehearsal was held in the main hall of the new Rzeszow Sports Centre, and is also the place where a number of the major concerts including the Gala concert were held.

The first rehearsal was not too physically challenging, just mainly learning a series of finales which would be performed at different concerts during the Festival. The theme of the Gala Concert being dedicated to the memory of our previous pope Jan Pawel II was just wonderful and very, very powerful, even during practice sessions.

Lajkonik also rehearsed for a few hours with “our” Pan Jasiu. Unfortunately, the rehearsal room was too small and it was very hot, but we were very highly motivated and we made the best of it. Jasiu has a wonderful teaching technique with young people, and always seems to demand and get their 100% effort.

His words “nie skakac w Mazurze” remain embedded in everyone’s brains, as well as many other helpful comments to improve our dances. Jasiu brought a huge homemade chocolate cake called “Mazurek”, which is his absolute specialty, and after the rehearsal, everyone got “stuck into” this treat.

Kandydaci na Miss i Mr: Natalia Kawa i Paul John Pilichowski

Thursday was the welcome disco/Mr and Miss Polonia elections. This event was held outside in the grounds of the University and was apparently quite a wild and exciting affair. I didn’t go, because I took the opportunity to take a bit of time-out, and catch up with Jasiu. We always have so much to talk about, as we see each other once every 3 years at the most.

Our representatives at the Mr and Miss Polonia contest were Natalia Kawa and Paul John Pilichowski. They looked fantastic, and did us proud, even though they did not win. I think the photos say a lot about what happened on this night when over a thousand young people from all over the world get together for the first time in three years!

Friday, more rehearsals, a visit to the Skansen at Kolbuszowa (village style folk museum comprising original wooden huts); a welcome mass at the Rzeszow Cathedral and a parade through the main streets of Rzeszow, being the official opening of the Festival. There was little time to think of much apart from what had to be prepared for the coming performances.

Saturday was the first day of performances, which were held at the Bulwary Picnic Area which is just a short walk from the Sports Centre. A large open stage had been constructed, with wooden seating for the audience, food kiosks and a range of other facilities and stalls similar to Polish Christmas at Darling Harbour.

As we were in the first group, called the Wilno Group because this was the group that was continuing on with the Festival in Lithuania after Rzeszow, we were in the opening concert. There were 5 other concerts over the course of the weekend, to accommodate the large number of over 40 dance Ensembles. So the concerts were continuous over the course of the whole weekend.

Msza ¶w. w katedrze rzeszowskiej

Relatives, friends, residents of Rzeszow and dance ensembles not performing in that particular concert, formed the audience at this venue. It was a very informal and convivial atmosphere, with people coming and going all the time, but always someone to dance to, and a good opportunity to get the muscles “warmed up” for the more major concerts scheduled for the following week.

Sunday afternoon was spent performing virtually all of our dances in the small town of Sedziszow Malopolska, with the other Ensembles in our Wilno Group. Here, on a perfectly sunny Sunday afternoon, the locals turned out in full force (as they always do for the “Polonusy”) to give them their warm support and welcome. I initially disliked being referred to as a “Polonuska”, but over time, I have realised that its not meant in a negative sense, and have become accepting of it.

On Monday evening, we performed our Australian Dance at the Concert featuring dances from Countries of Origin. Our dance was a Macloud’s Daughters-inspired dance combining country dancing, line dancing, tap and rock-n-roll to a John Farnham piece of music called “Talk of the Town”.

Koncert Krajów Zamieszkania

It was definitely totally different to anything else performed in the concert, and in my view, and gauging by audience acclamation, went well. I wanted to create a layback, easy style dance which reflected on the Australian country attitude and pre-occupation with the topic of waiting for rain.

Apart from some other interesting antics, some of the boys danced with stalks of grass in their teeth, which was picked up by the media in their commentaries as a typical Aussie quirk. I was fine with this and thought it to be a nice and appropriate touch. Some of our best photos show us in the Aussie dance.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw us engaged in all-day rehearsals in the Sports Centre. This, combined with long sleepless nights engaging in a variety of other noisy “social” activities resulted in our “Lajkoniki” being very tired, in fact, exhausted, and me being very frustrated because I knew how much was still ahead of us, and how important it was for Lajkonik to perform well in the Gala concert.

Before we knew it, we found ourselves dressed and in the wings waiting for our turn to perform our Bialy Mazur to a sell-out audience of around 3,000 people. One of our lovely dancers, Cora, had sprained her ankle the night before, and hadn’t rehearsed all day on the pretext of resting her ankle so that it would be OK for the evening performance. In all our optimism, we believed this is how it would turn out, but to our disappointment, the ankle failed to respond to being rested and to various medications.

Dyskoteka na powitanie

Lajkonik ended up going on stage with only 7 pairs. This resulted in a lack of balance in the dance, which probably bothered only me and Jasiu, but couldn’t be helped. To their credit, the 7 couples which did perform, put their heart and soul into giving the best performance possible, and this is what is most important to emphasise. Luckily, the Bialy Mazur was performed in its full 8-couple glory at the Bulwary concert on the previous Saturday, and then later at the second Gala concert in Wilno, Lithuania.

Which brings me to the beginning of the next story which starts at 6am the next morning with “pobudka” (morning call) for all those continuing on to the Festival in Lithuania………..

I have been asked many times – am I happy with our performances in Rzeszow. I must honestly answer YES and ABSOLUTELY.

I chose the dances to suit the standard which we were capable of achieving for Rzeszow with a contingent that was mostly younger and less experienced. These 16 “Lajkoniki” came such a long way over the course of 4 months of extra rehearsals, and I was proud and satisfied with their performances at the various venues.

Furthermore, the experiences they gained, being a part of the Rzeszow Festival, seeing and meeting other dance Ensembles, and sightseeing in 4 countries will remain in their memories throughout their lives, and I am glad that I was able to contribute to this goal being achieved.

URSZULA LANG

ZESPO£Y Z AUSTRALII "LAJKONIK" I "POLONEZ" W RZESZOWIE 2005

LAJKONIK: TANIEC KRAJU ZAMIESZKANIA

KONCERT GALOWY, LAJKONIK POLONEZ & MAZUR

TAÑCE RZESZOWSKIE NA BULWARZE