We hope you had a peaceful August. We are happy to have a busy month! We’ve been on tour in Slovakia, for the second time since last year and we also visited the Czech Republic. Festivals we performed at are Maraton Hudby Brno, World Music Festival Bratislava, Zvuk for Modra and Zvuk for Štiavnica. For two and a half weeks on the road, we’ve had eight gigs, led seven workshops, had one residency and had a mini vacation in a beautiful city of Banska Štiavnica. It is worth a visit!
In Brno we had a chance to perform only with our voices and bodies, let’s call it unplugged, because of the good acoustics of the space of Prvni Patro.
The other performances on our tour were outside, most of them in beautiful yards of castles, churches and independent cultural centers.
At the World Music Festival Bratislava we worked with Milánosz, Czech and Slovakian vocal group performing songs from the Balkans, Russia and Ukraine. It was a very short, one day residency, but we get to work on two songs and perform them at the showcase concert. We’ll share a video recording with you until the end of the year.
We are grateful to Spectaculum production (and Aleksandra Pastorkova) for organizing part of the tour in Slovakia. We were teaching and performing at Zvuk for Modra and Zvuk for Štiavnica festivals and were guests at independent cultural center Hidepark in Nitra.
We’ve met new and old friends at the concerts and workshops and shared our passion for the Balkan body music. Almost everyone clapped with us in one moment or the other. So many smiles, emotions, hugs, laughs, even some tears because of the beauty of the music.
Part of the tour in Slovakia and Czech Republic is supported by the mobility fund of the Serbian Ministry of culture.
Photos: Barka Fabiánová (Full Moon Magazine), Andrea Spakova (Maraton hudby), Lukáš Záleský (Zvuk for Modra), Arpád Mátyás Pál (Zvuk for Štiavnica)
Photos: Arpád Mátyás Pál (Zvuk for Štiavnica)
During this tour we performed at the Smolenice Castle, at the festival Hudebni leto na hradbach in beautiful Prerov and in the cool surroundings of Hidepark in Nitra.
And last, but not least, the workshops! Seven in count, we led body music workshops at Smolenice castle, Prerov, World Music Festival in Bratislava, Zvuk for Štiavnica, Zvuk for Modra and in Nitra’s Hidepark. A lot of laughs, creative people in all walks of life, communal music, breathing and a lot of bright pairs of eyes.
Workshop Play on the body in Prerov at the Hudebni leto na hradbach festival, Prerovske aktuality, Televizie Prerov
Photos: Michal Sýkora (Prerov) Arpád Mátyás Pál (Zvuk for Štiavnica)
The group Alice in WonderBand showcased a fascinating music and dance spectacle.
…songs presented at the World Music Festival in Bratislava were a synthesis of singing, music, dance, movement on stage – all ingeniously directed. Their performance was a theatrical performance, with distinctive visual elements of the artists themselves.
…concentration on the rhythm, almost a ritual character of many songs, their authentic interpretation in singing and dance choreography seemed spectacular…
Zuzana Vachová
Read more here in English, or in Slovak at mojakultura.sk
September body music events: workshops, performances, seminars in Croatia, Serbia and Switzerland
We start the school year with two workshops for teachers: one in Zagreb at Županijsko stručno vijeće on September 5, the other at Večeri udaraljkaša u Križevcima on September 7. The concert of Balkan body music we’ll perform in Križevci in the evening of September 6. Workshop at the Waldorf pedagogy Serbia‘s kindergarden Svitac in Belgrade is on September 15.
In Switzerland in St Gallen, we’ll have a workshop on September 21 and concert and theater show on September 22 at Aula Goldach. Find the tickets here!
On the last day of September we travel to South Korea for the first time to Gwangju Busking World Cup.
Photo: Lucia Mandicová (Modra), Daniel Iskerka (Modra), Martina Pnacekova (Nitra), Arpád Mátyás Pál (Zvuk for Štiavnica)
The third edition of the New Balkan Rhythm festival
To keep the tradition and the festival flame burning, we did a super – mini – two day edition. We opened the festival with our concert on Friday, August 30. Saturday was for workshops, movie screening, home made food and boat ride on the river Danube. We had a small group of participants from Germany, New Zealand and Serbia. We can’t help being international 😉
The theme of the festival was the song well known in the Balkans: Ruse kose (Serbia), Katibim (Turkey), Apo xeno topo (Greece), Pogledaj me, Anadolko (Bosnia), Oj, ti Paco Drenovčanke (Macedonia). It is a unifying song, as well as one that separates, thus carrying a lot of the Balkan spirit.
Our partners on the New Balkan Rhythm festival project are the Tourist office of the Sremski Karlovci Municipality and Pokret gorana Vojvodine. The festival is supported by the Secretariat of culture of the City of Novi Sad.
Photo: Alisa Dinjaški
Balkan body music in the media
Radio Proglas session recording will be out on September 18 on their YouTube channel! Our host was musician Jannis Moras. We had a pleasure to enjoy the conversation and play some of our songs in a perfect acoustic setting. We are grateful to Milan Tesar for this opportunity.
Listen to Davy Sims‘ radio show Around the world, you’ll hear some of our music! We met Davy at Maraton hudby in Brno.
We’ve also met Bojan Djordjevic: you can hear more about this festival as well as World Music Festival Bratislava in his radio show Disco 3000.
Prerovsky Denik released a nice reportage of our workshop, you can check it out on their website.