Kofola, cimbalom and white croissants
What is the connection between these three things? Well, generally found in the Czech Republic, specifically found in Sumperk. We, the TU Dresden folklore dance ensemble “Thea Maass”, or TUTE for short, ended up in this Moravian town this summer for the International Folklore Festival.Full of expectation and hope, our group set off for the annual dance exchange from August 12 to 17.
Dancers in Sumperk spoiled by the festival experiences of the last few years in Katowice and Poznan, the arrival was already disappointingly disorganized. Unfortunately, this impression hardly changed during their stay. In addition to various performances and parades in Sumperk, the dance highlight of the week was to be found in a country with which the ensemble is now quite familiar – Poland!
Nevertheless, the Czech audience was enthusiastic and impressed by the performance of our ensemble and rewarded our work with a lot of sustained applause. Due to the rather sparse opportunities to perform, we had enough time to familiarize ourselves with the customs of the Czech Republic, be it culinary or cultural. Some of the dancers developed a preference for Kofola, the Czech equivalent of Coca Cola, while another enjoyed the white milk cookies from our neighboring country. The traditional music around and with the cimbalom (a musical instrument played with mallets) was unanimously chosen as the “mood maker”. As an exchange with dancers from other nations such as Mexico, Slovakia, South Korea, Taiwan or Russia unfortunately hardly took place or could not take place due to the organization of the festival, a strong group dynamic developed within the TUTE,brought us all a lot of joy and fun. Whether singing and making music together during the bus trips, playing games in the dormitory or on excursions … the atmosphere was cheerful and exuberant!
This cheerful atmosphere in the ensemble only slightly spoiled the overall impression of this year’s festival for us. Happy to have undertaken another journey together, all the dancers and musicians took their leave for the summer break with the wish and hope for a more challenging festival next year. We would like to thank the TU Dresden, the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the TUD and the Studentenwerk Dresden for their support, which made it possible for us to prepare intensively for the festival!
Laura Dittmann
