Triglav - Club Bled 2005

In October, 2005, the Slovenian Dance Ensemble Triglav had the pleasure of visiting the Slovenian community in the Hamilton area. This would include the outlying areas such as Stoney Creek, Burlington and Beamsville. During their visit, Triglav had the delight of performing for Slovenian in the area at the Slovenian hall ‘Club Bled’ in Beamsville.

Triglav was the featured entertainment for Bled’s annual Vinska Trgatev festival. It was an honour and a privilege to perform during this festival for so many Slovenians, many of whom originally settled in Winnipeg, before moving to the Hamilton area.

Triglav, at the outset, would like to thank the President of Club Bled, Lojze Lesica for firstly inviting us, and for secondly hosting us in such a traditional Slovenian manner. Helping Lojze out where Nancy Gimpelj and Tatjana Lesica, as well as Frank Maric. The hospitality showcased by these individuals, as well as many others will be truly treasured by all members of Triglav.

Triglav was scheduled to perform on Sunday October 2nd, but arrived into the Toronto area on Saturday October 1st, in the morning. After being met at the airport by Lojze, Nancy, Tatjana and Frank, it was off to Club Bled to meet additional people and for a fantastic lunch, prepared by the ladies of the club. After that very filling lunch, it was off for a 20 minute drive to the beautiful, Niagara Falls.

While some members of Triglav were at the Falls at a previous point in their life, for many of them, this was their first opportunity to see this natural wonder. The day was absolutely exquisite, and the way the sun shone, created a beautiful rainbow over the falls. All of the cameras were out in no time, and you can hear all the ‘clicks’ from the camera’s, taking pictures of the falls from various vantage points. Some people enjoyed walking up and down the promenade, while others took the ‘Behind the Falls’ tour, while others walked into town for shopping. It was a great side trip, to see one of the great natural wonders that this world offers to us.

After Niagara Falls, it was back to our billets house, for a quiet evening. However what was thought to be a quiet evening was nothing of the like. Many of the billets had plans for us, and before we knew it, we were off to other people’s houses, visiting, celebrating Birthday’s in one case, and having a great time. Eventually we all made it home and considering that our day started in Winnipeg at around 4:30AM, we all hit the pillow hard that night, and enjoyed some much needed rest.

Sunday morning, it was off to Mass at the Slovenian church in Hamilton, St. Gregory the Great. It was great to hear the priest welcome ‘the visitors from Winnipeg’ with such an endearing tone to his voice.

After Mass, we slowly made our way to Club Bled, unpacked our costumes, got them laid out, and prepared for our show. After a very hearty lunch, the performance was on. Dressed in their traditional Gorenjska costumes, Triglav made their way onto the stage, and after an introduction by Lojze Lesica and Nancy Gimpelj, the microphone was turned over to Stan Majowski from Triglav, who acted as our emcee. After offering greetings in Slovenian, Stan proceeded to tell the people of the history of Triglav, the history of the Slovenian community in Winnipeg, and the history of our Slovenian church in Winnipeg, Our Lady of Lourdes. At the end, he introduced the dances, and it was ‘on with the show’.

After a very successful Gorenjska suite, it was time for something that Triglav does extremely well, a traditional ‘audience participation dance’. Performing Postertanc (or the Pillow Dance), the dance floor was crowded in no time, with many people from the audience eagerly participating. Performing Postertanc to ‘Strije Fantje Spilajo’, the audience and Triglav truly enjoyed performing this number.

After a short break, Triglav came back to perform dances from the Prekmurje and Bela Krajina regions of Slovenia. It seems that there is a fair number of Slovenian immigrants from these two regions in the Hamilton area, and they both appreciated that ‘their’ culture and region where showcased! After our Bela Krajina suite, another traditional audience participation dance, that is used by Triglav during our Folklorama festival in Winnipeg. Performed to a medley of Slovenian Folk Songs, the audience was led through a series of twists and turns, and, once again, truly enjoyed themselves.

After the performances, Triglav took the opportunity to meet with as many people as they could. Many members of Triglav had family, or very close friends of the family that they wanted to talk to. It was also a treat, as the band playing for this event, Brajga, was a subset of Planinski Kvintet (who visited our community twice). It was great to see Eric, Danny and Mike again, and a special thanks to Max and Nada for coming to see us as well.

And how can Triglav forget all of the people that came up to us, and thanked us for a great performance. The hand shakes, the kind words, were all very much appreciated. Our thanks to all who took the time to come see us in the Hamilton area!

We were also lucky to reacquaint ourselves with David Antolin. David visited Winnipeg in November of 2004 to conduct a workshop for our dance groups, and it was great, not just to meet David, but to meet his wife Jenn and two boys.

Further, it was great to see Milan Stefanec again. Milan visited our community in July of 2004 with Alfi Nipic in Njegovi Muzikanti (an awesome Slovenian band, and former lead singer of Bratov Avsenik). It was wonderful to see Milan once again.

Unfortunately, Sunday evening was also the time that Triglav was flying back home, so at around 8:00PM, it was time to say goodbye to our new friends, and it was back into the cars/vans, and off to Pearson airport. We all enjoyed a very safe and quiet flight home.

Our thanks once again to Lojze Lesica for organizing and coordinating our trip, and a very special thanks to Nancy Gimpelj and Tatjana Lesica, who went out of their way as well to make us feel very welcomed. A great big thank you to all the people that welcomed us into their homes, and treated us like family, and finally a HUGE, ‘Hlava Lepa’, to all who took the time to watch and see, what Winnipeg has to offer from the perspective of Slovenian culture. We hope that our paths cross again, in the not too distant future!

Written by,

Stan Majowski

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