A DANCE GROUP FROM AUSTRALIA
Yerkir.am
July 01, 2006
Q: When was Hamazgayin’s Australian "Sevan" dance group created?
A: (director of Sevan dance group Asatur HAJIAN): The dance group was
formed in 2003 with the initiative of Hamazgayin’s Sevan branch. The
mission of the branch is to contribute to the cultural life of the
Armenian community in Australia. There are 180 dancers in the group
today. The age range of dancers is 6-30 years. These are all amateur
dancers. The groups can only rehearse once a week. We usually use
music written by Armenian composers for our dance performances.
Q: Where did you receive your professional education?
A.H.: I studied in Aleppo. I was Abraham Kostanian’s student. Then
I continued my studies in Armenia with Azat Gharibian.
Q: Please tell us about your activities in Sydney. What performances
have you had there?
A.H.: Our groups have participated in a number of international
festivals.
We receive many invitation especially from foreigners. We were invited
by the Sydney Ballet to teach them an Armenian dance. Our groups have
an annual performance for the Armenian community in Australia. In
addition to this we have a number of other performances. Last year
our group performed together with Ara Gevorgian in Sydney. We also
participated in the performance of Anush Opera directed by Araks
Mansurian.
Q: How did you decide to participate in the One Nation, One Culture
Festival?
Levon Demirian: The initiative came from the Armenian office of
Hamazgayin.
Since we needed a lot of money to come to Armenia to participate in
the festival, the assistance of the Armenian community in Sydney
and our benefactors was very important. With their assistance 50
members of our dance group could participate in the pan-Armenian
festival. Participation in the festival was a good opportunity for our
young people to visit their homeland and be exposed to the Armenian
culture. I have to comment on a very painful issue. During the festival
there were many instances when our culture was presented in foreign
languages. I hope such incidents will not be repeated in the future.
Q: What was the program with which you participated in the festival?
A: We had folk dances in our program. We performed in Vanadzor,
Dilijan, Sevan, Ashtarak, Cascade and the Opera Theater. We will
perform two dances at the closing concert on June 30 together with
Ara Gevorgian which is a big honor for us. By the way, we are the
only dance group from the Diaspora that had the honor of performing
at the opening ceremony.
We have a performance in Stepanakert, Artsakh on July 2. On our way
back to Australia we have a performance in Aleppo on July 7, then
another performance in Damask on July 8, and another one in Beirut on
July 11. Hamazgayin is the organizer of all these performances. All
our expectations were justified and the kids are very enthusiastic
about their performances.
We are grateful to our dance instructor Asatur Hajian because he built
the dance group in three years. We hope we will be able to stick to
our mission of promoting our culture.
We would like to thank once again the organizers of the festival as
well as Hamazgayin for the opportunity that we had to visit Armenia
and perform here.