| It was during Lajkonik’s visit to New Zealand, sitting in the car on the way to see native kiwis, when the idea of holding a children’s dance festival was seeded. That’s all it took for Ela Rombel of Orlęta and Ursula Lang of Lajkonik who shared their dreams for their emerging young dancers and realised the potential of bringing them together for a Children’s Polish Dance Festival in 2018.
Orlęta, a folkloric dance group from Wellington New Zealand catering for young people, has been running for over 24 years. They have performed at countless concerts and events in and around New Zealand and have even travelled to Australia, a number of times, to participate in Polart festivals. Orlęta participated in the last Polart in Melbourne where they performed their unique musical theatre – the story of Smok Wawelski.
This year they will present the story of Czerwony Kapturek at the inaugural Children’s Polish Dance festival to be held in Marayong Sydney April 21 – 22. Dances adapted from the Mazury and Kaszubskie regions will feature in the theatre performance along with action dances for children like the popular “ Pszczółka Maja” and “ Wiewióreczka Mała”.
Orlęta instructors Jennifer Hanson and Juliet Rombel have cleverly choreographed dances to fit with the fairytale theme and to suit the abilities of the children who are aged between 4 and 14. Without spilling the beans we are promising to bring humour, intrigue and lots of fun to the festival as well as a number of our group dances.
Ursula and her team are to be congratulated for raising the funds required to launch the Inaugural Polish Children’s Dance festival. The vision and dreams we shared, during that road trip in New Zealand, confirmed our mutual commitment, challenges and triumphs of coordinating our beloved Polish dance troupes resulting in this exciting venture.
We look forward with pride to participating in the Children’s Polish Dance Festival together with other groups from Australia in April 2018.
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