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Dancing with your children

Two Friends Author New Book on Dance and Songs for Children

twofriendscoverMaria Bielski and Janina Dobkowski have recently co-authored and published a book of Polish children’s singing games and dances entitled “Two Friends, They Went A’ Dancing.”

The book contains the lyrics of ten popular singing games in both English and Polish as well as a vocal music score with chords. Clear step by step movement and dance instructions are outlined with the text. In addition, a CD of the recorded songs with accompaniment is included so that parents, grandparents, teachers, and children can immediately enjoy the songs and games. Each page has an original “wycinanki” (Polish cut-out style) illustration designed by the artist, Joanna Bielska, which can be reproduced for coloring or craft projects.

The authors created this book as a resource for anyone interested in folk culture. They hope it assists parents and grandparents in passing Polish traditions on to their children and grandchildren. Teachers, occupational therapists, ethnic dance directors, whether Polish or not, can use this book to enrich their classroom program, physical education curriculum, music and dance classes, and children’s events. The CD can be used during assemblies, parties for both children and adults, car trips, and sing a longs.

Both authors are teachers by profession and have an extensive background in Polish folk art, music, and dance. They have danced with the Polish American Folk Dance Company and organized countless folk dance workshops all over the New York Metropolitan area. They are members of the Polish American Teachers Association, which has its headquarters at the Kosciuszko Foundation, and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Professional Women’s Association.

Ms. Bielski has been on the teaching staff of the Krakowianki and Gorale Children’s’ Dance Group of Greenpoint for the past several years. Ms. Dobkowski is a member of the National Dance Association and Dance and the Child International which fosters dance opportunities for children. Mana and Janina have been friends since their teenage years in the Polish Scouting organization. They have been dancing and singing together their whole lives. The authors invite everyone to grab a friend, young or old, and dance.

Poetry,

April 20 – The Father and His Son by Kazimierz Brodziński

My son, give me my spade and plow —
To labor is our lot,
And though a lonely being now,
I’ll guard our little cot.

Within the valley of thy birth
Lies armor we will raise;
‘Tis hid within our native earth,
Awaiting better days.

And when I see thee draw once more
Thy father’s conquering sword,
I’ll dream our night of slavery is o’er,
And freedom is restored.

And oh, my son, weep not for me;
These aged hands can toil
For our support–but ’tis for thee
To guard our native soil.

My hope on God and thee depends,
And God will me reward;
My corn will grow to feed the friends
Whose swords our freedom guard.

See where yon trees their branches wave,
And shroud the church in gloom,
There, sooner than become a slave,
Thy sire will find a tomb.

And if returned from foes o’ercome,
To me be tear-drops given;
If not, thy arms must share my tomb,
And seek thy sire in heaven.

From —Poets and Poetry of Poland A Collection of Polish Verse, Including a Short Account of the History of Polish Poetry, with Sixty Biographical Sketches of Poland’s Poets and Specimens of Their Composition— by Paul Soboleski.

Father and son by Glory Fraulein Wolfe

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

The Haunted Manor (Straszny Dwor) in San Francisco, CA

The Pocket Opera presents The Haunted Manor (Straszny Dwor) by Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819 Minsk -1872 Warsaw) in a new translation with lyrics in English.

Straszny dwór

A NEW TRANSLATION of a buoyant and colorful comedy, by a composer revered in Poland as second only to Chopin.

“It is hard to think of a more prodigiously tuneful opera after Mozart than The Haunted Manor” wrote one critic. Greatly beloved in Poland where it is often performed, and where it is considered the quintessential Polish opera, comparable to The Bartered Bride, the quintessential Czech opera, yet it is practically unknown elsewhere. Pocket Opera, nudged by a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, comes to the rescue!

Two young soldiers, in a characteristically Polish burst of patriotic fervor, make a vow to remain single in order to be instantly available in case of need – a not unlikely prospect, considering their homeland’s turbulent history and its precarious location, sandwiched between two powerful and aggressive neighbors, Russia to the East, Prussia to the West.

This causes great consternation among the unmarried ladies in a land largely depleted of eligible men, due to decades of losses on the battlefield. Despite the somber background, a lively, exuberant, romantic comedy emerges, with a parade of colorful characters and a sparkling, ever flowing stream of dancelike melodies – the mazurka, the polonaise, the krakoviak . . .

How does the haunted manor come into play? Come and find out!

Costumes and props on-loan from the Polish Arts and Culture Foundation and Łowiczanie Polish Folk Ensemble. Łowiczanie will perform in the opera. Singers include Patrycja Poluchowicz and Dalyte Kodzis. Rehearsal space for the Pocket Opera partially subsidized by The Polish Club Inc. (San Francisco).

Performances:

  • Sunday, April 19th, 2:00 PM at the Legion of Honor – Florence Gould Theatre at the CPLH, San Francisco, CA
  • Sunday, April 26th, 2:00 PM at the Legion of Honor – Florence Gould Theatre at the CPLH, San Francisco, CA
  • Saturday, May 9th, 2:00 PM at the Julia Morgan Theater – Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Berkeley, CA

Philip Lowery from Pocket Opera will be interviewed by Zbigniew Stanczyk, “Studio Poland,” to air this coming Sunday, April 19th at 2pm on San Francisco’s KUSF (90.3 FM on your radio dial, or listen online).

Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Announcing a new project: Writing the Holocaust

Charles Fishman, the editor of Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, and Dr. John Z. Guzlowski have started a blog about “Writing the Holocaust.” They will be sharing information about the poetry, fiction, films, and art of the Holocaust.

The current entry features a piece about Helen Eisen, the author of The Permeability of Memory, a fine book of poems about her experiences in the DP camps in Germany and how they shaped her life in the states.

Current Events, ,

Scholarship opportunities – Making smART Connections: Artist / Educator Collaborations

A day-long conference for educators and teaching artists

Scholarship opportunities exist – Applications due April 17th

Thursday May 7, 2009, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., The High Peaks Resort Lake Placid, NY

The New York State Alliance for Arts Education, in conjunction with the Adirondack Arts in Education Partnership, Champlain Valley Educational Services and the North Country Teacher Resource Center is proud to present a day-long Arts-in-Education (AIE) conference.

This conference is designed for all educators: general classroom teachers, sequential arts & music teachers, school administrators, teaching artists, cultural organization education coordinators, school librarians, and interested parents.

Participants will gain insight and strategies on bringing the arts into the classroom and infusing and enriching the curriculum in all subject areas through the arts. Those new to AIE will discover where to begin the journey, and where to turn for resources. Veterans will gain new techniques for the planning, execution and evaluation of AIE programs. Our goal is for everyone to come away with a renewed passion for ensuring that the arts are an integral part of every student’s education.

To register online – click here.

Current Events, , ,

Second Annual Student Art Exhibit

Featuring VSA arts of New York City ‘Murals Program’ & NYS Alliance for Arts Education ‘Side by Side Program’ (a VSAarts Sponsored Program)

April 27 – May 8, 2009, Empire State Plaza – South Annex East Wall, Albany, NY

Opening Reception: April 29, 2009, 1:00 – 3:00 PM

VSA arts is proud to present this Collaborative Exhibit highlighting the artwork created by students in the NYC ‘Murals on Parade’ and ‘Side by Side’ programs.

VSA arts is an international, nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where all people with disabilities learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts. For more information on VSA arts in NYS click here.

Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Poetry by Polish, Polish-American, and Polish Diaspora poets

Dr. John Z. Guzlowski and Christina Pacosz have co-edited two issue of the journal KRITYA that feature poetry by Polish, Polish-American, and Polish Diaspora poets. The April issue alone includes poems by 18 poets from Poland, the US, and England.

Dr. Guzlowski has also written a brief statement on the importance of celebrating the art and writing of the Polish Diaspora. writing and art are important.

Over the years, I would hear about a poet here or a novelist there who wrote about the Polish Diaspora, and I would track these writers down, and slowly I began to realize that I wasn’t the only one writing about the Diaspora…

Everything Else, ,

Schools of Distinction in Arts Education – nominations due

Know a New York School that Goes Above and Beyond in Arts Education? Nominate them for the Schools of Distinction in Arts Education Award!

Deadline: Friday, March 27, 2009.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schools of Distinction in Arts Education awards program provides an important outlet for expanding recognition of the role individual schools play in providing a creative learning environment for outstanding student achievement.

This award provides a great opportunity for the New York State Alliance for Arts Education to highlight a New York school that has developed exemplary arts education programs. State winners are submitted for consideration at the national level, where they receive an honorarium, a plaque for display, and the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

To be considered for the State level of this award, your school’s arts education program should have most of the following characteristics:

  • Your school should teach all the arts (music, dance, visual arts, and theatre) as specific disciplines as well as integrated into other subject areas.
  • Your program should use creative approaches to learning, provide appropriate learning environments for teaching the arts, and recognize that the arts are critical and essential to education.
  • Your program should provide opportunities for parental involvement in the educational lives of their children.
  • Your program should provide students various opportunities for learning about other cultures through the arts, enabling them to explore differences in ways that are devoid of cultural bias.
  • Your program should provide community connections that build value and respect for the community by offering students diverse experiences beyond the classroom.

To learn more about this award, and to download an application, please go to the NYSAAE projects website.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Exhibitions at the Tate

From ArtDaily: Miroslaw Balka to Undertake Next Commission in The Unilever Series at Tate Modern

LONDON.- Tate and Unilever announced that the Polish artist Miroslaw Balka will undertake the tenth commission in The Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern (13 October 2009 —“ 5 April 2010).

Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1958, Balka lives and works in Warsaw and Otwock. This will be the artist’s first public commission in the UK, which will be unveiled on Monday 12 October 2009. Miroslaw Balka is one of the most significant contemporary artists of his generation. His work has had critical acclaim both in this country and internationally. Comprising installation, sculpture and video, Balka’s works explore themes of personal history and common experience drawing on his Catholic upbringing and the fractured history of his native country, Poland. Intimate and self-reflective, his works demonstrate his central concerns of identifying personal memory within the context of historical memory.

In works such as Oasis (C.D.F.) (1989), he suggests a domestic setting in which the daily rituals of human existence are played out. Eating and sleeping, love and death are evoked using materials which have a particular resonance for Balka such as milk, wooden planks from his childhood home and pine needles salvaged from the tree that grew outside his window. In this work dedicated to the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, Balka invokes both the spiritual and the everyday.

Central to Balka’s work is the use of materials of humble quality such as ash, felt, soap, salt and hair to give a sense of spirituality through their association with lives lived and memories left behind. Salt, for example, alludes to human emotions in the form of sweat or tears, whilst soap evokes the intimate yet universal daily rituals of cleansing as explored in Hanging Soap Women (2000), in which used bars of soap donated by women are strung together on a wire. In the installation, 190 x 90 x 4973 (2008), Balka constructs a wooden walkway with walls measuring 190cm high (the artist’s height) without any ceiling and made from simple common building materials such as plywood, creating a claustrophobic tunnel with no visible destination.

Memorials play an important role in Polish society but also in Balka’s personal experience —“ his grandfather was a monumental stonemason and his father an engraver of tombstones. His early performances and sculpture referred to his experience of the rituals of Catholicism, perhaps made more intense in a country where religion was repressed…

I would love to see this. If we reflect on this work we see the underlying Catholic connection – the communion of saints, the Church triumphant. It is our connection, raw and closest to the heart, seen through eyes of faith, made beautiful.

For more information visit the Tate

Also from the Tate: Symbolism in Poland and Britain from 14 March to 21 June, 2009.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Learning culture, from the family on up

From the Buffalo News: Dance troupe, trip to Poland connect teen to her roots

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. But where did we come from? At one point in history, your ancestors likely emigrated to the U. S. from someplace else. Do you know from where —“and when —“ they came?

Nineteen-year-old Christina Slomczewski does.

Christina, a sophomore at Daemen College, takes great pride in her family’s history. She grew up in a home in Buffalo based on Polish traditions, and she often heard her grandmother speak the language.

—As a child, I always heard my grandmother talking to family and friends in Polish, and it always seemed like a bonding experience,— said Christina.

Christina’s great-great-grandparents emigrated to the United States. Even though her ties to Poland are not extremely close, the tradition has been passed down since those first relatives set foot on American soil. The family eats Polish foods such as ham, potatoes, pierogi a dough pocket filled with fruit, meat, cheese or potatoes and kielbasa, a Polish sausage. They also celebrate swenconka, or a blessing of Easter food the day before Easter.

So, naturally when Christina was offered the chance to travel to Poland, she jumped at the opportunity. Last summer Christina went to Poland for a month with the Kosciuszko Foundation. The foundation is an organization which helps children in Poland learn English from American teachers. Even without a teaching degree, Christina was able to spend her time in the city of Przypok, Poland, as a teacher’s assistant, teaching the English language to students ages 9 to 14.

—While I was there, the teacher and I did lessons with the kids until lunchtime. And in the afternoon we played games with them. It was a lot of fun and the children were really nice,— she says.

“Believe it or not, the U. S. and Poland are a lot more alike than most people think,— says Christina. —They have shopping malls like we have here —“ and they even have a lot of American based foods. [But] I realized how lucky we are to have so many things in the U. S.— Christina says: —Every day we take for granted the little things, like clean tap water and free public restrooms. In Poland you have to pay two dollars for a small bottle of water and 50 cents every time you needed to use the bathroom—

Christina is currently a member of Western New York’s largest Polish-American cultural and dance group, Harmony Polish Folk Ensemble. Harmony was founded by several families with Polish ties. They have upwards of 50 members, who range in age from four to 75.

Manya Pawlak-Metzler, president of Harmony, says she is always very impressed with Christina’s —ready-to-go— attitude. —Christina is reliable, dedicated, and eternally upbeat. Her ability to adapt to frequent change is unparalleled, and her skill in level of dance has recently resulted in her placement as a junior instructor for our organization,— said Pawlak-Metzler.

Harmony’s mission is to expose Western New York to Polish culture through traditional song, dance, and simple language lessons. But on a less dramatic scale, the group is also out to prove those who believe Polish dancing is all polka, very, very wrong.

—I think that the people who usually associate [our] dancing with polka all the time are surprised. They get to see the more traditional side of Polish dancing.— Christina said.

—I’m proud to show where my family came from every time I dance with Harmony. Just within the hour show we put on for people, they get to live as if they were one of those Polish villagers, and they take home with them a story which they can tell their families for generations to come.—

The article points to experiences much like my own (although, I was never a dancer…). Knowledge of ones roots, cultural connections, being in the family, and most especially the extended family. Those are the experiences that give us a core sense of warmth, connection, and of being grounded. As we mature those experiences blossom into a deeper knowledge, studied history, and all its intricacies. That knowledge doesn’t destroy our our starting point, it only deepens our understanding of it.

Beyond the family, the article points to the support of church and community, both of which are essential in establishing a sense of self.

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