St Eliah’s Dance Ensemble, Corby brings together all interested parties to cultivate Serbian customs and traditions and develop creativity in the arts and culture.
“KUD Sv Ilija” (cultural and artistic society) was inaugurated and blessed in March, 2013 in Corby and named after our Church, St Eliah. Despite initial obstacles, a team was formed with the ideas and energy to bring solutions and success to this venture.
The ensemble has enriched the environment in which we live. We present our religion, national flags, symbols, costumes, music and traditional dance to the people of Corby . Large numbers of parents and children have joined, and we have formed four different categories which brings together dancers of similar ages
Our folk ensemble has been blessed with the presence of the Church and its luminaries. Today we have over 40 members, each with their own national costume, music and choreography of the highest quality, with assistants, a musical accompanist and eventually a leadership team for the folk ensemble. Day by day, the troupe has performed in various cities and cultural venues. Performances often revolve around the celebration of religious holidays with folklore groups from London, Leicester, Bedford, Birmingham in cities across England and ensemble performances at festivals such as the Northampton Street Dance Party, Umbrella Fair Festival, Oakley Way Multicultural Day Festival and Bootleg Corby. We are extremely pleased that we managed to organise a Folk Dance Festival at the Corby Cube with special guests Kevin Costello Irish dance troupe and Scottish Grampian Highland troupe. Through this project, we demonstrated the beauty and diversity of cultures in the community where we live. Wherever our performances are seen, they have been net with much admiration and respect and the quality on show at those scenes has become folk history! The ensemble won a High Sherriff Initiative Award 2014 at an annual ceremony Northamptonshire Community Foundation's Annual Awards.
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We are proud of our folklore group because in many ways the dreams and wishes of many in our local community have come to fruition. We are most proud of the fact that our community has managed to show the world through our culture and tradition, and we look forward continuing to sing and perform while audiences continue to gather. The troupe has formed warm relations with similar ensembles in Serbia and Europe and aims to develop ever-closer connections between our children and the members of these ensembles which in turn help to form unbreakable bonds of personal friendship. We are delighted to announce that in 2015 we have expanded the breadth of our cultural activities with the formation of an original vocal group Kosovljani (who perform songs from different regions).
In 2015 we celebrate our second anniversary and we will no doubt use this opportunity to present our excellence in traditional folk dance. These past two years, we have been honoured to represent the country we came from. We are delighted that we can teach our children to continue and preserve the Serbian traditions that we are blessed with and to share and work alongside other cultures in Northamptonshire.
Our Ensemble is proud to have organised a collection for humanitarian assistance for the from Drača family from Obrenovac, a region hit by catastrophic floods which engulfed Serbia and the Republika Srpska in 2014.
http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/hronika/aktuelno.291.html:492757-Bujica-ubila-troje
Among other many other humanitarian activities highlight humanitarian work and with whom we helped collect donations for the monastery of the Holy Virgin in Sweden.
If you have photos, comments or ideas for our ensemble, feel free to share them with us by email serbiangroup.st.eliahlive.com via our facebook page www.facebook.com/ensemblest.eliahcorby
We welcome members of all ages are welcome to join us.