We have had yet another successful festival "Tancuj, tancuj...,”the biggest folk music event of Vojvodina’s Slovaks, and also the biggest folk music festival of the expatriate Slovaks.
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
This year, the festival was held in Gložan, in the beautiful ambience of Gložan’s amphitheater. It hosted a large number of competing singing and dance groups and orchestras from 19 Slovak towns in Vojvodina (Aradac, Bački Petrovac, Boljevci, Dobanovci, Hajdučica, Gložan, Janošik, Kovačica, Kulpin, Kisač, Lalić, Lug, Novi Sad, Padina, Pivnica, Selenča, Stara Pazova, Šid and Vojlovica), three home ensembles (Đurđevo, Maglić i Novi Sad) and two foreign ensembles – from Chroatian town Ilok and Slovakian town Očovo. The festival provided a number of additional cultural events, and the members of the audience who have visited our festivals before could also notice some innovations.
The basic innovation is that the folk music festival "Tancuj, tancuj..." from the year 2013 has had the organizational-legal form. The founders of the festival are National Council of the Slovak National Minority, Local Community of Gložan and the Slovak Cultural Artistic Society "Jednota" from Gložan, while the municipality of Bački Petrovac and the Cultural Institue of Vojvodina’s Slovaks also joined the organization. The festival has its own Organizational-Legal Board, a Program Board and a coordinator, a Preparatory Board, of course, which in the name of the Local Community of Gložan provides technical support for the festival and the venues.
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
Another innovation of the festival is the announcement of the winner, live on the stage of the amphitheater, right after the end of the festival. This year was the first time the awards were given in front of the live audience, not only the ones attending the festival in Gložan, but also all of them who watched RTV Vojvodina’s live coverage.
Based on this, we found out the results of the festival:
Orchestras:
1. Place: Folk orchestra of the Slovak Cultural-Educational Association "Đetvan" from
Vojlovice, art director: Vladimir Kolarik
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
2. Place: Folk orchestra "Rosička" of the Cultural Centre "3. oktobar" from Kovačica, art director: Emil Njemček jr.
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
3. Place: Folk orchestra of the Slovak Cultural Artistic Society "Pivnice", art director: Valentin Mihal Grnja
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
Singing groups:
1.Place: Girl singing group of Slovak Cultural Centre "P. J. Šafarik" from Novi Sad, art director: Olivera Gabrinji
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
2.Place: Girl singing group of Slovak Cultural Artistic Society "Janošik" from Janošik, art director: Katarina Mosnak
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
3.Place: Male singing group of Slovak Cultural Artistic Society "Đetvan" from Vojlovice, art director: Vladimir Kolarik
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
Dance groups:
1.Place: Folk music ensemble "U pivničkom polju" – older group of Slovak Cultural Artistic Society "Pivnice", art director and author of coreography Široká dunajská voda: Janko Mernjik
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
2.Place: Younger dance group of Slovak Cultural-Educational Association "Jednota" from Gložan, art director and author of choreography Zažeň, Jaňík, ovce, do tej bukoviňe: Jaroslav Kriška
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
3.Place: Folklore ensemble of Slovak Cultural Centre "P. J. Šafarik" from Novi Sad, art director: Ivan Slavik, author of choreography Drotári idú...: Jan Slavik
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
These decisions were made by the expert jury which included: Juraj Ferik, Jarmila Juricova Stupavski and Jozef Vladimir Zifčak (who rated the performances of singing groups and orchestras) and the expert jury including: Ana Medveđ Gaško, Milorad Lonić, Pavel Holjik and Vlasta Vinkovič (who rated the performances of dance ensembles). For further information about the expert jury reports see our web site, column From my point of view.
Also, this year the National Council of Slovak National Minority for the first time presented its own reward to the winner of the festival, the contestants from Pivnice. The winners will represent us at the festival called "Slávnosti pod Poľanou" in Đetva (Slovakia) in 2014. The reward is a metal statue made by artist Mira Brtka.
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
The ceremonial nature of the event was undoubtedly achieved by the new arrangement of the festival anthem, which has been changed after almost thirty years. The author of festival’s anthem is Kvetoslava Benka and the arrangement was done by Ervin Malina at the initiative of the Pannel for the Improvement of the Festival and Cultural Events of National Council of Slovak National Minority's Culture Comittee. The anthem was played during the opening program, right after the ceremonial speach of the President of the Local Community of Gložan - Jan Bohuš, the President of municipality of Bački Petrovac - Pavel Marčok and the President of the National Council of Slovak National Minority and the Vicepresident of the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina – Ana Tomanova Makanova.
This year’s festival offered its visitors various additional events, of which we recommend the art exhibition by the members of the Women's Association "Slovenka" from Gložan, exhibition of paintings "Gložanska paleta", the second in a row School of Folk Dances in which the members of the folk ensemble "Očovan" from Slovakia, under the guidance of Pavel Holjik, together with the fans of the Slovak folk music performed the dances from region of Podpoljane. There was also the Traditional Cuisine where our women's and other associations made traditional Slovak gastronomic specialities for the visitors.
The whole event started on Friday, May 31st, with a full-lenght concert performed by the folk music ensemble "Očovan" from Očova (Slovakia). Lively performance of the dancers and singers of the ensemble, accompanied by a band, introduced the 43rd Folk Music Festival "Tancuj, Tancuj ..." in the appropriate way.
Foto: Igor Bovdiš |
The festival program itself was created by many people, of which we shall mention just a few: the festival coordinator Marijan Pavlov who, together with Jaroslav Kriško, set the order of performances of music, singing and folklore ensembles for three concerts of this festival. Moderators were Jasna Čipkar, Hana Milina Florijan and Branislav Ušjak and the script was written by Marina Horvat.
Directing of the opening and closing program of the festival was signed by Katarina Mosnak, while the Cultural Institute of Vojvodina's Slovaks was in charge of the visual identity of the festival (information booklet, poster, leaflet, tv advertisement), which also entrusted Irena Lomen for this year’s design of the printed materials.
In addition to the organizers, the realization of the festival was financially supported by the Office for Slovak Diaspora, the Provincial Secretariat for Culture and Public Information, and other numerous sponsors.
It is necessary to thank all, as Hatalja Mihal, the President of the Organizational-Managing Board of the festival said, especially all the participants of the festival who with great affection contributed to the preservation of the folk traditions showing that at the present time amateur collective work is still able to ennoble us.