WHAT IS ?

is unique---not just to Columbus, not just to Ohio or the Midwest or even to America, but unique to the world. Only one fully professional dance company in all the world celebrates the dances, songs, and music of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. is that company. is a distinctive company of 25 performers trained in the styling of Southern Slavic dance and music. has an orchestra of native instruments. owns 26 sets of colorful, hand-embroidered costumes. directors have made numerous trips abroad to study and conduct research.

is the only fully professional dance company in the world which performs exclusively the dances and music from the Southern Slavic nations. Professional dancers, singers, and musicians perform a specialized repertoire of energetic dances, songs and music from Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia wearing colorful, traditional costumes.

From the fiery and explosive men’s dances of Macedonia to the lyrical, moving strains of a love song from Croatia; from a colorful village scene in Prigorje to the exuberance of a foot-stamping wedding in Podravina, transports its audiences across the varied landscapes of the former Yugoslavia with a repertoire that is continually changing and expanding. The company is in constant demand throughout Ohio and the Midwest, and has toured nationally and internationally.

Founded in 1973 by three women of Croatian background, directors treat their audiences to not only a lively and entertaining program, but also to one that is well-researched, accurate, and authentic. Pamela Lacko Kelley, founding artistic director, and Melissa Pintar Obenauf, founding Executive/Dance Director, have received many choreography fellowships from The Ohio Arts Council. In addition to its inclusion on arts series across the country, also performs with symphony orchestras and in opera productions.

In 1994, in celebration of the company’s twentieth anniversary season, the celebrated choreographer Mark Morris created a piece for called The Office. Within the context of a performance of traditional folk choreographies, most audiences interpret The Office as having to do with the war in Bosnia.

The summer of 1997 marked another significant event in the company’s 25-year history when toured Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, performing for refugees displaced by the war in former Yugoslavia in refugee camps/centers, in orphanages, and at a Center for the Abandoned Elderly in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

WHO FUNDS?

receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, from the Ohio Arts Council, from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, from the Community Arts Fund at the Columbus Foundation, as well as from many corporations and individuals. Earned revenue is generated by ticket sales and performance tours.

The Ohio Arts Council City of Columbus Grants Program Greater Columbus Arts Council The National Endowment for the Arts The Columbus Foundation Community Arts Fund The Reinberger Foundation Nationwide Insurance Foundation

WHAT DOESMEAN ?

(Zhee-vee-lee) is a Croatian exclamation or toast that means, "To Life!"

WHERE DOESPERFORM?

has toured throughout the United States and abroad, appearing in major theaters and on many prestigious performing arts series throughout the country

WHAT IS SINGING STYLE?

The singing heard in most of repertoire is generally noted for its tremendous vocal strength. Although both male and female voices are important, it is the female voice, singing in its powerful register projected from the chest, that produces the brilliant sonority and soulful energy characteristic of this sound---a sound born in the villages of the former Yugoslavia. It is a style that is a musical extension of the beauty and fluidity of the villagers’ languages and of their robust speaking voices, not shaded by subtle nuances but bursting with rich, deep and vibrant sounds. This singing style is a reminder that the human voice preceded all other instruments and is still the sole accompaniment in many ritual dances where it plays an important role. This "village voice," with its many melodic and harmonic lines, its intriguing dissonances, and its passionate delivery, is a reflection of the villagers’ lives, customs, and struggles to maintain their ethnic identities.

WHAT ARE INSTRUMENTS?

The Southern Slavic nations (former Yugoslavia) are richly endowed with folk instruments. These instruments can be categorized as vibratory, percussive, stringed, or wind, and these categories have subdivisions within which there are many types. One can find such relatively "modern" instruments as the clarinet, accordion, flute etc. Instruments from all of the preceding categories are played by musicians depending upon the region being presented on-stage. The instruments that are played most often, however, are those of the tambura group: multi-stringed, fretted instruments whose appearance in the area dates back to the 15th Century. Those instruments that play both the melodic and harmonic lines are the bisernica or prim, the smallest type and the highest-pitched, and the , larger in size and deeper in timbre. The larger even that the , plays counter-melodies, as well as melody and harmony. The bugarija is a guitar-like instrument which plays on the "off-beat," and the berde (double bass), plays on the down beats.

For more information, contact Melissa Pintar Obenauf at (740)587-7715 or (877) 906-8314 (toll free)
1753 Loudon Street, Granville, OH 43023. Email:mobenauf@alltel.net

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