Ballet takes on a new meaning with a national company from Slovakia.

words yvonne teh

Lúcnica, the Slovak National Folklore Ballet, is a song-and-dance troupe with a 59-year-old history but whose performers’ ages range from a youthful 18 to 27 years for the men and an even younger 17 to 24 years for the women. Known as “the Rolling Stones of folklore”, its Forever Young presentation promises to be a bundle of Mick Jaggerish energy. And if Viliam Gruska, the group’s production manager, gets his wish, audience reaction to Lúcnica’s performances in Hong Kong will be commensurately rock concert-like. For what he hopes to see, he told bc, are people getting “totally involved in the rhythm and overwhelming joyous atmosphere the performance produces”, clapping their hands, stomping their feet and “wanting to jump out of their seats to join the dancing on stage”!

Clearly, Lúcnica’s brand of ballet is not what would be described as conventional. Rather, the ensemble founded by the now octogenarian Professor Stefan Nosál’ (who remains its artistic director and principal choreographer) close to six decades ago tends to appear in productions that showcase the dance and cultural traditions of Slovakia’s ethnic groups. As such, the Bratislava-based company has served the Slovak Republic well as an international cultural ambassador since the Eastern European country’s birth in 1993.

Before the ‘velvet divorce’ that led to the creation of what are now popularly known as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Lúcnica performed a similar role for Czechoslovakia, touring internationally as early as 1959. The troupe – which has seen over 2,000 young dancers pass through its ranks over the years – has now performed in more than 60 countries. Still, it wasn’t until 1970, with its first visit to Japan, that the group came out to Asia – even now, it might be said that Lúcnica’s trips to the world’s largest continent are rare and special.

It thus seems appropriate that the 14 dances of Forever Young are talked up by Gruska as “a collection of the most successful programmes of Lúcnica”. With descriptive, sometimes bucolic, names like Spring Arrives and Shepherd’s Night, these traditional folk dances promise to show that Slovakia is, as Gruska effusively puts it, “a picturesque country of fertile lowlands and rugged mountains, plenteous historical and cultural richness and ethnic beauty”.

And when I inform Lúcnica’s representative that the meanings of certain dance titles are not all that immediately obvious to people in Hong Kong, Gruska is quick to explain that Boys of Sharish is a group dance which features “young men dancing with spurs and high leaping steps” while Detva Festival is another, performed solely by females, “using handkerchiefs as props” as they joyously dance to celebrate one of the last of Slovakia’s great folk festivals.

“Fujara Melodies,” Gruska goes on, “is a music programme [featuring performers] playing the traditional Slovak shepherd’s flute called a ‘fujara’; Headers from Podpolanie is yet another music programme, this time with a focus on “violinists from middle Slovakia”, while “Karicka Dance is about a circle dance from eastern Slovakia”. But what of The Tossing Dance? I manage to get Gruska to state that it is “a typical pair dance”, but whether it involves certain of its performers physically tossing others is something the curious will need to see for themselves come late September! Gruska kept his secret.

Lúcnica – The Slovak National Folklore Ballet will perform Forever Young on September 21 to 23. All shows are scheduled to start at 8pm. Tickets for the September 21 and 22 performances at the Sha Tin Town Hall’s Auditorium are $200, $150 and $100 while those for the September 23 performance at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall’s Auditorium are $180, $140 and $100. Tickets from URBTIX, 2734 9009.