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Dancers celebrate Polish culture, constitution
When: 3:30 p.m. Sunday
Admission: $30-$65
Where: Heinz Hall, Downtown
Details: 412-392-4900
Lira Dancers
Photo courtesy Jon Randolph
Mark Kanny can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7877.
The event also emphasizes ties between Poland and America. It could hardly be otherwise. The Polish Constitution being celebrated was adopted on May 3, 1791, and was inspired by the Constitution of the United States -- with which it shares a division of power between executive, judicial and legislative branches, including a bicameral legislature.
Lucyna Migala says the Lira Ensemble was founded in 1964 to preserve and share Polish culture and usually presents performances in connection with important events. The Heinz Hall concert will feature 65 dancers, singers and instrumentalist performing under the baton of Paul Dijkstra. Iwona Puc is the choreographer.
"We're doing two types of dances from the opera 'Halka" by Stanislaw Moniuszko -- a mazurka performed in gorgeous, stately 18th century costumes, which would have been danced by the aristocracy, and folk dances" in costumes from many regions in Poland, she said.
The music of Poland's greatest composer, Frederic Chopin, will figure prominently, of course, including an orchestration of his famous "Military Polonaise." And Migala says the traditional song "May Third" that will be sung has recently been authenticated as by Chopin.
Sunday's concert also is a celebration of 400 years of Poles in America, dating back to 1608 at the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. Migala acknowledges that their names "have been lost in history but they set up the first factories in America, which made pitch and tar that were useful for trading."
In honor of the earliest Polish immigrants, two songs from the first songbook printed in America, "Beauty" and "Be Generous Love," are part of the program.
Migala says the Lira Ensemble has always been open to and included people of different ethnic backgrounds. "It's been a blessing to have African Americans, Asians and Latino in our group. Our audience loves them and knows that they had to really kill themselves to get the right pronunciation. I always say the entire world should be singing and dancing to Polish music. Isn't that what God intended?"
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