Each year, Veselo Community Folk Dancers invite a foreign dance instructor to share a different culture’s moves with Eugene. This time around, they’re presenting the lively, Eastern European jives of Croatia.
International choreographer and Croatia native Zeljko Jergan will teach a workshop during a song and dance festival this weekend at Mac’s at the Vet’s Club, located at 1626 Willamette St.
Veselo Community Folk Dancers Steering Committee Chairman Shirley Reeves said a Croatian dance theme was chosen for its upbeat sights and sounds.
“It’s very cheerful music,” she said. “They use mandolins and miniature-sized guitars. It’s very bouncy music — it makes you want to bounce a little bit.”
Festival Coordinator Linda Ketchurn said Croatian dance mostly involves circle and line dances. Performers usually dress in embroidered costumes in combinations of red or blue with white, accompanied by elaborate head pieces adorned with flowers and streamers. She said the mood of the music often matches the colorful attire.
“The music is very pretty,” Ketchurn said. “Sometimes it is melodic, and sometimes it is sorrowful and lamenting, but it is usually upbeat and happy.”
Registration for the workshop starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and the lesson begins at 9:30 a.m. Participants are invited to have lunch at Mac’s at the Vet’s Club restaurant at noon, and the workshop will resume at 1:30 p.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. Jergan will discuss the culture of his country at 11 a.m. on Sunday, followed by a coffee break at noon with free snacks. Workshop participants will then have a chance to wrap up their lesson during a workshop review from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.
During Saturday’s lunch break, local band Balladina will perform traditional tunes from Greece and Croatia. The seven-member folk band, which plays regularly at Eugene’s Saturday Market and has performed around the Northwest, sticks to music from the Balkan region of Europe. They play a number of instruments native to Balkan countries, such as the kaval (a Bulgarian end-blown flute which is the size of a recorder) and the tambura (a teardrop-shaped string instrument).
Dan Downes — who plays tupan (a large, stick-beaten, double-headed drum) and doumbek (an hourglass-shaped hand-beaten drum) — said Balladina’s presentation of Croatian music will be “cheerful and perky.”
“You just want to move (when you hear Croatian music),” he said. “You have to do something to it. The dance is based on little tiny bounces. You do several bounces on one foot before switching to the other foot. There is a bounce for each beat, so you can end up vibrating if the music is fast.”
Downes, who also helped organize the festival, said his group will play five to six stringed instruments — including a violin, bass and three sizes of tamburas — to mimic a traditional Croatian ensemble. He said the Greek portion of their show will be more soulful and laid-back than the Croatian section; it will also employ more percussion and woodwind instruments.
The festivities won’t end with Jergan’s workshop and Balladina’s performance. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, four groups will present cultural pieces that are not of Croatian descent. These will include Korean music, and salsa and Egyptian dance.
“For the performance portion of the festival, we like to show a range a different styles,” Downes said.
The evening show will be followed by a dance party at 8:30 p.m. featuring live music by Arcada, Calif.-based folk band Chubritza. The six-member group is similar to Balladina in its choice of unusual instruments. Their varied musical genres stretch beyond the Balkan region to Israel and Mexico. They will set the scene for the dance party with traditional songs from Eastern European countries.
The package cost for all festival events is $35 for the general public and $25 for students and seniors. For those who only attend the workshop, tickets are $10 for the general public, $7 for students and seniors. Ticket prices for the dance party are $15 for the general public and $10 for students and seniors. The 7:30 p.m. showcase of international song and dance is free.