Folk dance duo
By Steve Macone/ Correspondent

Medfield Press, MA
June 23 2006

Thursday, June 22, 2006 – Updated: Jun 23, 2006 11:55 AM EST

Jack and Niari Keverian, along with about 80 others from their
Armenian folk dancing troupe, will leave for a two-week tour in
Armenia on Friday.

They are two of about 30 dancers – some of whom hail from Waltham –
who, along with crew and directors from the Sayat Nova Dance Company
of Greater Boston, will celebrate the troupe’s 20th anniversary with
seven main shows scheduled across the country, the biggest one in
capital city of Yerevan’s opera house.

"This is…on the most widely known stage that I’ve ever been on.

I guess you could say it’s the biggest performance of my life," said
Niari, who has traveled to Florida, Canada and Detroit for dancing.

The company will perform Armenian folk dance with a "modern twist"
in smaller cities and villages such as Stepanakert, Goris, Gyumri,
as well as in a military base in Yerevan.

Jack and Niari will have their two sisters, mother and father,
grandfather, aunt and uncle there for support.

Niari has been dancing since she was one. She graduated this year
from the University of New Hampshire with a minor in dance, and she
said dancing has always been a part of her life.

"I’ve always been around it. My mother and her sister, my aunt,
danced with the group before it was known as Sayat Nova," she said.

"I used to watch the performances back stage along with the director’s
daughter. Now we’re dancing with each other in Armenia," Niari said.

Niari said she is only nervous about getting sick on the trip.

"If you get sick you have no time to get better because we have such
a crazy schedule," she said. "About performing, though, not in the
least. I’m more excited than anything else."

Jack, an acrobatic soloist, will have many leads in the dancing
stories.

"I’ll be going on the ground, doing splits in the air. You can’t
really describe it," he said.

Jack has been to Armenia before. Two years ago, he spent a summer
volunteering at an orphanage. It is to that same region that he will
return to perform in front of 10 to 15 thousand people, hopefully
including the priest and others he stayed with before.

Jack, who will be a sophomore at UMass Amherst in the fall, said he
is excited about the food and the atmosphere.

"We’re going to six different regions and performing for these people
that have not seen performers from America in a while, especially
from an area like Watertown with such a large Armenian population."

Watertown, the home base of the troupe, has the third largest Armenian
population in the country.

The troupe is also preparing for the other part of its anniversary
celebration: performances on Sept. 30 and October 1 at the Cutler
Majestic Theater in Boston.

In preparation for the trip, Jack came home from college every Sunday
all year for rehearsal. After April, it was every Tuesday, too.

With that back and forth, he said he’s recorded traveling a total of
12,000 miles by car already for this trip.

Jack and Niari’s mother Diane, who danced with the company from 1968
to 1987 when Jack was born, said she is excited for the trip, which
will also be a way for her children to connect with their heritage.

"The dancing is not just about dancing. There’s a story line behind
each dance," she said.

"The last time I was in Armenia, it was a Soviet republic," said
Mrs. Keverian. "I’m looking forward to seeing what the dancers’
reaction will be to the audience that they will be performing in
front of."

"What I hope is that when they return they will introduce the Boston
audiences to what Armenian folk dance and what the Armenian culture
is about," she said.