| On Saturday 5th December 2009 at the Bankstown Polish Club, we were treated to an early Christmas. The colourful decorations, the flashing lights on the Christmas tree, the wonderful Polish smallgoods provided by "Polonez Smallgoods" brought all of us together for a wonderful night of song and dance. The decorations were outstanding and a thanks must go to all members of Kujawy who assisted in putting them up; but a special thank you to Wiesia Wojnicz for her extraordinary Christmas tree made completely out of green balloons, was the back drop and the first thing you saw upon entering the Club premises.
The function commenced at 7:30pm to a full auditorium of people. The band was lead by Mr J Scisłowski and accompanying him was pani Józefina. A special treat later on was by Mr Woods who performed for all of us. Promptly at 8:15pm Kujawy began their concert. The opening dance was "Suita Śląska", the colourful twirling of the Rozbarskie costumes in the Trojak, danced by the middle group was a wonderful treat.
This was then followed by 8 couples in the Górniczy costume dancing Sztajerek. The next colourful dance was the littlest group dancing Wrona. The exquisite embroidered dresses of the little girls and the overall performance of the little group was excellent and on a very high level. None of them missed a beat and the applause was loud and long for the littlest members of Kujawy.
After a short break the middle and older group came out to perform Przepióreczka in the beautiful Blue and Red of the Kujawski costume. But, we were to see something new in the updated Przepióreczka. The solo preformed was exciting and enticed the audience to want more. The costume of the Soloist was the reverse colours of the remainder of the girls and the new Kujawski headpieces just put the icing on the cake so to speak. Overall the dance was very colourful with the red and blue of the costumes.
This was followed with an up tempo of the little group dancing Cotton Eye Joe in which you could see the fun they were having and the audience participated in clapping to the tempo of the music. The final dance was of the oldest group in the well known Krakowiak which was finished off with the finale.
There was a special treat installed for all the littlest members of the group when Santa came bearing gifts for all members. You could see their sparkling eyes as Santa came in with his bag of gifts and sat in the chair provided.
The president Jolanta Żurawska made a speech welcoming all who had attended that evening and a special welcome to Pani Ryszarda Bardaczewska after her long absence due to health reasons. A special thank you was given to all the sponsors of Kujawy – Polonez Smallgoods, Narel Smallgoods, Dr Kaja Łukaszewicz, Express Wieczorny, Krystyna Matejuk (Korpak), Fundusz Wieczysty, Puls Polonii, Blum Foundation and many more.
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She also thanked the młodzież for all their hard work over the last 12 months and a special thank you to Marek and Wiesia Wojnicz the group’s renowned choreographers for all their work and assistance in the last 12 months. Jolanta gave a special thank you to the committee and all were called out and introduced to those present. She also thanked Zosia Cyganiuk for all her assistance as vice president. The microphone was then given to Zosia Cyganiuk who said a special thank you, had to be given to Maria Ejsak the group’s seamstress (who made all the wonderful costumes the group have to date) and she then thanked President for all her hard work over the last 12 months.
With the formalities over the Zabawa began. That evening was the drawing of the big Guessing Competiton Raffle and the tickets were drawn by the Club's Manager Janusz Ofierzyński.
The winners were –
1st Prize of the LCD television - B Hunt
2nd Prize of the DVD recorder - T Cyganiuk
3rd Prize of the dozen bottles Johnny Walker - H Idal
4th Prize $100 gift voucher - M Chawa.
The night was a great success and enjoyed by all and many stayed up until 2am. The next day was a busy one as Kujawy once again had a performance at Polish Christmas at Darling Harbour. Here the little group once again danced Wrona for the last time this year and the older group danced the highly acclaimed dance (especially choreographed by Wiesia Wojnicz for Rzeszow last year) Road to Gundagai which once again was highly received by all members of the public as something different and refreshing.
"Kujawy – Sydney" will be departing for Adelaide for the POLART Festival on the 26th December and I personally wish them all the success that I know they will achieve.
Kujawy would like to send a special Christmas wish to all parents, sponsors and supporters of the group, without you behind the curtains it would make it difficult to be the wonderful group they are today.
On behalf of Kujawy we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010. See you all next year!
On behalf of the Kujawy Committee
Mirosława Żurawska
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