— PERFORMANCE GROUPS —
Triglav Dance Group
A Brief History of the Triglav Dance Ensemble
The Triglav Dancers were formed in response to the need for entertainment for the Folklorama festival. The festival was to be a “one of a kind” to celebrate Manitoba’s centennial in 1970. For the first festival a mixed choir mostly made up of choir members of Our Lady of Lourdes Church along with a local polka band. The festival turned out to a great success and became an annual event. Triglav, a senior dance group of mostly 16-18 year old was created in 1972. The first dance teacher was Agnes Perkic.
It is hard to find out who was responsible for the original idea of the dance group for there is no mention of it in the Slovenski Klub minutes of the time. The idea most likely was initiated by the Church which already had a group of young people involved in catechism and the language school, a captive audience in a sense.
First Triglav Dancers
First Row: Benita Simonic(Sustarsic)Yolanda Peston(Jasnic) Milena Bukal(Fonda) Stan Casar Silvo Stublar Dennis Dekleva
Second Row: Joe Pikel Andrej Sutlic Jernej Anderlic
Although Triglav performed mainly for Folklorama audiences here in Winnipeg in the early years they did accompany the Zvon Singers on two concert trips to Edmonton in the late 70’s. By the beginning of the 80’s the group was largely self run with the occasional dance instructor from Toronto coming to do workshops. Authenticity was always a goal for the dance group and as years went by the quality of their performances and repertoire grew.
In 1987 the Fontana Button Box Band from Fontana, California performed at our pavilion. The twenty or so member band were mostly older Slovenians, many third and fourth generation, descendents of Slovenians who came to the US in the early 20th century. Many lost their language. When seeing so many young people participating in the workings of the pavilion, and hearing so much of the “old language” as they called it, they were most impressed and by the end of the week they had invited Triglav to perform at their annual Button Box Festival in Fontana, California the following year. From that festival another invitation came to perform in Pittsburgh the year after that.
Over the next few years Triglav continued to perform at Folklorama. They would also perform at community events and do charity performances at nursing homes and other local events.
In 1996, Kristina Majowski took on the role of dance instructor. Her commitment to learning as much as she could about the dances from various regions, showed itself in the quality of performances which the group attained. A quiet ambition for the group was to perform in Slovenia and to take their knowledge to a higher level.
In 1999, the Minister for Slovenians Abroad was doing a quick tour across Canada to meet with Slovenian cultural organizations. A dinner was organized by the CSCS for her and her entourage. When she asked us what her department could do for us we mentioned the possibility of a performance tour of Slovenia. After she saw Triglav perform she turned to her assistant and said “Make this tour happen.” So in July 2000 Triglav did its first tour of Slovenija. The one week cultural workshop and performances was centered out of Koper. The sponsoring group Mandrac Telmont, headed by Mojce Lepej provided a wonderful, albeit intense, schedule of classes in Koper and performances throughout Slovenia.
First performance ever in Slovenia
Tartini Trg. City of Piran July 2000
In August of that year Mandrac Telmont came to Winnipeg as part of the exchange. They performed at Folklorama most nights, taking one night off to visit other pavilions. After the week was done, one member of Mandrac Telmont marvelled at what he saw and said, “You work very hard at being Slovenian”.
The 2000’s were filled with travel for the group:
1999 — “Slavic Days” Chisholm, Minnesota
2000 — Slovenia
2001 — Fort Frances, Ontario
2001 — Chisholm, Minnesota
2002 — Calgary — Slovenian Club of Calgary
2002 — Roblin and Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba
2004 — Toronto, Ontario — Lovska Drustvo
2005 — Hamilton, Ontario — Club Bled
2006 — Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
2009 — Slovenia
2010 — Hamilton, Ontario — Club Bled
2011 — Toronto, Ontario — Lovska Drustvo
2013 — “Colori del Mondo” — Pescara Italy
2016 — Calgary, Alberta — Slovenian Club of Calgary
2017 — Ottawa, Ontario — Slovenian Embassy Centennial Celebration
2024 — Slovenia
2024 — Toronto, Ontario — Mladi Glas 50th Anniversary Celebration
In 2005 an article in the prestigious Slovenian cultural magazine “Folklornik”, writer David Antolin stated Triglav Dance Ensemble the best Slovenian dance group in North America. This is a testament to Triglav’s dedication in promoting and maintaining an authentic representation of Slovenian dance and song.
After 22 years as the head instructor of Triglav, Kristina Majowski retired from her position with Triglav in 2018 to follow her Slovenian heritage in another way...by opening a bakery specializing in Slovenian and Scottish pastry.
In 2019 the CSCS and Triglav began plans for another dance workshop and performance tour of Slovenia for a whole new generation of dancers. Unfortunately, Covid put these plans on hold for a while. Hopefully, in the near future Triglav will be able to make these plans a reality.
At present there are 20 members in Triglav with Luke Majowski taking over from Myranda Terry as head choreographer. Luke brings years of experience as a Triglav dancer himself, as well as former co-choreographer of Razmarin, the middle dance group.
