St Patrick's Day Festival 2008

Advanced registration for the workshops and the concert recommended: Contact info@artpolonia.org

Content

Music, stories, dances, workshops - journeys through time and space - all of these will take place in the Yurt.

We will follow in the footsteps of folk musicians, Eastern nomads, Romas, Jews, Vlachs, Crimean Tatars or Kazakhs – starting from the villages of Eastern Poland to Bukovina and Transylvania. The experience will evoke the senses through music, dance, laughter and tears.

Any law of acoustics that applies within the area of the cylinder-topped Yurt, with its distinctive cone shape, seems to support the idea of an archaic form of playing, singing and listening to music without the need for using electricity. A musician standing in the centre of the Yurt and playing even a very quiet instrument can be heard clearly both by the assembled audience and dancers swirling around as the sound travels evenly through the Yurt.

Artists

Kwartet Wiejski (Folk Quartet)

Robert Wasilewski: dulcimer, viola, telenka, kaval, singing

Ewa Wasilewska: violin, jaw harp, singing

Jacek Hałas: acordeon, hurdy-gurdy, bass, jaw harp, singing, dance workshop

Alicja Choroma ńska - Hałas: traditional percussion instruments: gordon, drum, tapan

Kwartet Wiejski comprising Kapela Hałasów and Transkapela from Poland, both masters of a living tradition. The musicians have studied Polish and European traditional culture for many years and participated in many ethno-musical experiments in Poland, Russia and the Caucasus. Kwartet Wiejski derives their inspiration from living tradition as well as from archive collections. They will present the songs of wandering folk singers and will make use of the hurdy-gurdy and other little-known instruments including the dulcimer and utogordon. The overall style will be one of intense dancing energy, artistry of performance and unique instrumentation.

Programme

9 am – 12 am
Building the Yurt
We are starting with joint constructing and decorating of the Yurt. Everyone is invited to contribute to creating the unique space which will be a half stage and half craftsman’s workshop with a little a gallery and a honky-tonk. Within three hours a

vehicle for taking everyone into another dimension is created. This is sure to make a vivid impression on all concerned - crossing its threshold, you enter another reality, another time.

12.30 – 2 pm
Dance workshops Labyrinth full of temperament and expression - archaic dance forms, i.e. processional and round dances. The archaic dance forms in the workshops are based on simple repeatable sequences of steps (easy to learn). Through gradually increasing dynamics a sense of community is created in a group of people who before this event did not know each other.

1. Processional dances: We start the workshop with simple dances done in a snaking line and then through processions in rows and semicircles we go on to dance in circles.

2. Round dances - kouiaviak, oberek, polka -related to the most archaic ritual forms, dances of dervishes and Chassids or to a therapeutic effect of the tarantella; danced in pairs.

Music which is performed live all the time accompanies learning dance steps and makes it possible to adapt the rhythm of the event to individual needs.

2.30 – 3.30
Leluja Handicraft Workshop
Paper cutting - Wycinanki (vee-chee-nan-kee) - by Alicja Choromanska-Halas. Paper cutouts are a form of art that originated in China. In the 1600s it spread to Europe where it became particularly popular throughout Jewish communities.

During the 19th century developments in the dye industry resulted in brightly coloured shiny paper becoming readily available. Polish peasants, who had a tradition of decorating their cottages with hand-painted or stenciled motifs, began using them to create wycinanki.

Long horizontal designs were frequently affixed to exposed ceiling beams. Another favourite location was near the top of the wall, just below the ceiling. Large, complex cut-outs representing scenes from daily life, weddings or holidays were placed on doors.

Like much of our activity - music, dance, story telling - wycinanki are ephemeral in nature. The best place to meet this ephemeral beauty is in a Yurt. Through her school residencies and Yurt workshops Alicja tries to preserve this art of paper cutting.

4 pm – 6 pm - Concert and Dance Party
Programme: songs and tunes from different ethnic groups living and traveling through Poland; special performance by Jacek Hałas: songs of wandering minstrels (pie śni dziadowskie).

Jacek has researched the origins of homeless rural songs in living tradition, ethnographic recordings and private archives, to bring them to life during solo performances. Homeless - “dziady” of ancient Poland, songs about saints, miracles, the end of the world, about death, wandering souls, love and eternity. The main accompanying instrument is a hurdy-gurdy.

The concert will be followed by processional, round and old court dances - a noble kouiaviak, a sliding polka, a mystical oberek, polonaise, kontro, lipkaall of them seasoned with regional specialties.

Advanced registration for the workshops and the concert recommended: Contact info@artpolonia.org

Już po raz drugi przedstawiciele wszystkich grup etnicznych żyjących w Irlandii zostali zaproszeni do udziału w paradzie z okazji dnia Św. Patryka.

Nie chcemy aby na paradzie zabrakło polskiego akcentu, więc w ramach projektu City Fusion, sfinansowanego przez Dublin City Council, włączyliśmy się do przygotowania wielonarodowego, wielokulturowego, barwnego i artystycznie wyrafinowanego korowodu.

Tematy tegorocznej parady to Energia i Transformacja, bedzie więc kolorowo, symbolicznie oraz intrygująco.

Przed nami dużo pracy nad przygotowaniem kostiumów i choreografii. W związku z tym szukamy chętnych i pomocnych głów i rąk, a tym samym osób, które chcą wziąć udział w paradzie i poznać to widowisko od strony kulis.

Nasze warsztaty artystyczne odbywają się w każdą sobotę od 16 do 18, ale ostatnie tygodnie przed paradą, może będzie trzeba zainwestować ciut więcej czasu, aby wszystko dopiąć i dopracować.

Zabawa jest wyśmienita, praca kreatywna, możliwości poznania nowych, ciekawych osób zagwarantowne.

Czego oczekujemy w zamian – dobrych pomysłów, przynajmniej podstawowych zdolności manualnych (przygotowujemy maski) oraz regularnego uczestnictwa w warsztatach.

Ostatnia szansa przyłączenia sie do naszej grupy to sobota 2.lutego, godzina 16. Jeżeli jesteście zainteresowani prosimy o kontakt z koordynatorką polskiej sekcji: Moniką Sapielak: sapielak@artpolonia.org

OD WAS ZALEŻY JAK WYPADNIEMY NA PARADZIE!