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FESTIVAL DANCERS
Łowiczanie Polish Folk Dance Ensemble
DANCE ORIGIN: Poland GENRE: Folkloric
First Appearance in SF EDF: 1983 ENSEMBLE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/ CHOREOGRAPHER: Mary Kay Stuvland Website: www.polishfolk.org
Łowiczanie
Polish Folk Dance Ensemble was formed in 1975. The Artistic Director is Mary
Kay Stuvland. The company creates authentic programs of Polish traditional
music, song, and dance throughout the Bay Area and California, as well as in
Oregon, Nevada and Washington. The Ensemble's mission is to explore, preserve,
teach, and present Poland’s rich cultural heritage through concerts, festivals,
workshops and classes for Polish and non-Polish audiences. Łowiczanie’s
achievements were
recognized by the Polish government in 1989 with the Oskar Kolberg Award for
the exemplary service in preserving the cultural traditions of Poland for audiences
outside the country’s boundaries. In 2000, Łowiczanie was awarded a special
citation by
the Polish government for promoting cultural activities.
2013 PERFORMANCE
DANCE ORIGIN: Poland
GENRE: Folkloric
TITLE: Songs and Dances of the Żywiec Highlanders: Traditional Highlander Song; Koń;
Siustany; Pasterze; Sarna; Hajduk ENSEMBLE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/ CHOREOGRAPHER: Mary Kay Stuvland ŻYWIEC
CHOREOGRAPHY: Piotr Lącki, Mary Kay Stuvland MUSICAL SCORE (from the traditional): Susan Worland DANCERS: Jen Bzura, Kasia
Chaberska, Dominik Dąbrowiecki, Ryszard Drelich, Witold Dudziński, Jola
Jankowska, Phillip Kosiara, Ola Kozak, Brennan Kreller, Adam Kodzis, Anna
Paśnik-Szymańska, Aleksander Poppe, Krzysztof Mokszan, Natalia Mulawa,
Krysia Smoleń, Mary Kay Stuvland, Basia Suroż, Elżbieta Zieńczuk MUSICIANS: Carol Braves (violin), Barbara Deutsch (flute, piccolo),
Nicolai Prisacar
(accordion), David Mostardi (accordion), David Reyna (bass)
From
Poland's high Beskid Mountains, sixteen dancers present Songs and Dances from
the Region of Żywiec. The suite
opens with
a traditional a capella song about every girl’s hope for the perfect
suitor. The next dances are: Koń—The Horse, where singers
promise their horses food and rest if it carries their carriage
quickly and safely towards their beloved; Siustany, a
popular couples’ dance featuring a unique kicking step; Pasterze, a men’s acrobatic dance, where shepherds display their
prowess; Sarna—Deer, where girls imitate deer and sing of dancing
just as gracefully. The suite concludes with Hajduk, the quintessential
fast-paced Żywiec dance, with hopping patterns, and
a song of dancing until one’s shoes fall off.
Slavic
clans have lived in the Beskid Mountains since the tenth century,
and their mountain dance and music remains part of
today’s Polish folk culture, a style clearly born of high and rugged
landscapes. The men’s running and walking steps show the
strength and stances needed to climb mountain paths, and their
dance becomes an exhibit of mountaineering skills in high leaps,
graceful and energetic rolls, squatting dances, and rapid and
rhythmic push-ups. The simplest acrobatics bring to mind the
shepherd boy testing his strength—jumping over his own foot,
hooked cane, or hat.
A
traditional Kapela folk band plays in Żywiec
mountain style with
fiddle, bass fiddle, and the thin reed pipes easily made by shepherds.
At a highlander party, you might hear bagpipe or accordion,
or perhaps only simple handclapping and singing.
The dancers' decorated wool pants and leather kierpce shoes are
from home-based Polish shoemakers and seamstresses for everyday
mountain wear. This
Żywiec suite is an expanded choreography by Mary Kay
Stuvland, created in 2012, based on a 2004 version by
Piotr Lącki.
2011 PERFORMANCE
TITLE: Songs & Dances from the Biale Podlasie CHOREOGRAPHER: Mary Kay Stuvland MUSICAL DIRECTOR/PODLASIE ARRANGEMENTS: Susan Worland DANCERS: Jen Bzura, Geoffrey Cant, Alexander Dabrowiecki, Dominik Dabrowiecki, Ryszard Drelich, Witold Dudzinski, Ania Gudelewicz, Alexander Hadas, Julia Kite, Adam Kodzis, Phillip Kosiara, Brennan Kreller, Karen Oakley, Aleksander Poppe, Kasia Rostkowski, Joasia Smolen, Krysia Smolen, Basia Suroz, Gosia Suroz, Mary Kay Stuvland, Gosia Wojciechowska, Natalia Zelazna, Elzbieta Zienczuk MUSICIANS:
Carol Braves (violin), Barbara Deutsch (clarinet), Nikolai Prisikar (accordion), David Reyna (bass)
Biale Podlasie, a culturally diverse region in central eastern Poland, has suffered changing borders, pogroms, and holocausts. For centuries it has been home to Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Roma, and Jewish communities, with many dance and music forms shared across cultures. Songs & Dances from the Biale Podlasie exhibits the pathos, poetry, and confident sensuality of Podlasie villagers. The suite includes: Sobotka, an ancient solstice rite involving young women, flower wreaths, and love; Krzyzak, a walking and greeting dance; Jest, Drozyna, Jest, a man’s plea for faithfulness before he braves a proposal; and Skocz, Koniu!, with the suggestive lyrics: Jump, horse, into the wheat! Jump, horse, into the rye! Yesterday she was a young maiden, and today she’s a woman.
It continues with: Korobeczka to Eastern-style music; Oberek, a variation on a national dance, with dazzling traditional spins and twentieth century aerials; Tupacz, a “jiggling polka” performed with bending knees and foot-to-foot pivots; and Jeziora, the “little waltz”, with lyrics mourning an impossible love: I, a poor girl, am simple and poorly dressed, so I do not ask you, Jasienko, to be my husband.
Finally, the group performs Ojra, a smooth-gliding polka, the dancers’ arms shaping “the window”; and the galopa polka, where dancers travel like the wind.
This authentic presentation shows style of the regional floating and raised arms, and a dance style that is flat, level, and low—with no jumps in the air between “sits”. Men wear authentic handspun Polish-cut clothing. The women’s one-of a-kind costumes are costly works of art: the master craft of woven embroidery is disappearing in Poland. Musicians play regional instruments and most songs are in Podlasie’s favored minor keys.
Mary Kay Stuvland created the suite in 2010; consultant was Polish master choreographer Emma Cieslinska.
2006 PERFORMANCE
TITLE OF PIECE: Sarna (Deer), Siustany, Pasterski,
Hajduk GENRE: Beskid
Mountain dance from the Zywiec Highlands CHOREOGRAPHER: Piotr Lacki DANCERS: Jolanta Budynek, Jen Bzura,
Alex
Dabrowiecki, Dominik Dabrowiecki, Ryszard Drelich, Witold Dudzinski,
Piotrek
Filiposki, Lukasz Fuller, Alexander Hadas, Magdalena Koszalka, Piotr
Lacki,
Bogusia Libera, Michelle Maciel, Eva Miekus, Danusia Muchlinska,
Jerzy
Olszewski, Krysia Smolen, Joasia Smolen, Adam Sternak, Mary Kay Stuvland,
Basia
Suroz MUSIC DIRECTOR: Susan Worland MUSICIANS: Danny Cantrell (Accordion), Barbara
Deutsch (Flute
&Clarinet), David Reyna (Bass), Susan Worland (Violin)
Lowiczanie Polish Folk
Ensemble presents a suite of songs and dances from the Zywiec highlanders, beginning
with a song to call everyone out to dance. The women then perform the Sarna, or “Deer
Dance,” mimicking the long graceful leaps and prances of a deer while singing of their
wishes to be as graceful as a deer. The well-known couples dance called Siustany
illustrates the mountain styling of a still upper body with grounded footwork. Men then
perform Paszterski, showing off their game-like stunts. The suite concludes with the
energetic Hajduk and Obertka dances, full of show-off steps and raucous fun. The song
translates as, “We will dance until our shoes are in pieces, and then still continue!”
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