ŽKUD Tine Rožanc - folklore group Veterans from Ljubljana

Members of the Veterans folklore group met, after a prolonged break, seven years ago, and successfully prepared for a performance to mark the 45th anniversary of the parent organisation, the Tine Rožanc Railway Workers Cultural and Arts Society. Their creative gatherings aroused a desire that it should not be a one-off. They decided once again to devote their free time to dance. The group consists of 25 dancers, and their average age is 57. They are determined to keep dancing as long as they can. The largely veteran membership also includes an 11-member musical ensemble. Since 1993, the Veterans have rehearsed regularly - at least twice a week - under the leadership of Dr Bruno Ravnikar. They have revived their former knowledge, particularly of Slovenian country dances, and they have also had to learn something new. We have to realise that studying a new dance takes as much as six months hard work! New dances are the fruit of their own research work among people in the countryside. That was how Dances from the Ribnica Valley and Istrian Slovenian dances came about. The Veterans have thus become an important factor in the discovery and preservation of folk dance and musical traditions. They have given 80 public performances in seven years, 12 of them full-length shows. They have also been invited to perform abroad, with their age and the quality of their programme making them a genuine rarity. So far, they have performed in Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia and Egypt.