By Heidi Trautmann
From far away folkloric dance groups came to North
of Cyprus in the month of June to show their traditional dances on an open air
village stage in the heart of the old Cypriot village of Lapta or Lapethos. Cyprus is known for its love of traditions,
costumes, preservation of old craftmanship, music and dance; each village has its own association
cultivating the old ways with women sitting together and teaching the young
ones, dance groups of all age levels often competing with other villages and
going abroad to meet with other folklore groups.
The festival in Lapta coincided with the beginning of
summer and with the International Day of Music which was celebrated everywhere
around the island. It was a pleasure to see the various groups from Turkey,
Bavaria/Germany, Czech Republic, Mexico , Togo/Africa and our own groups, adult
and children groups in their traditional costumes. The crowds came with the
coolness of the evening and a red sunset and the scents of freshly made local
delicacies made people in the festival area put their noses up high and follow
them. Hundreds of chairs in front of the stage were soon taken and crowds stood
in the back to see and hear the groups. The guest groups all had brought their own
musicians and the air was filled with tunes unheard before, the Mexicans with
their Mariachi music – they have the sides of their trousers nailed in several
rows – they were great, and the Africans with drums of different sizes.
But for me and my husband to go to the Lapta Festival
was to meet with the Bavarian Folklore group as I had read that they came from
the same village as we, from Vogtareuth which is a village of approximately
4000 souls, first mentioned as settlement in 983; a rural village in the green soft hills near
the river Inn, close to Rosenheim between
Munich and Salzburg. It is well known for its Orthopedic Clinic and
Rehabilitation Centre, for its small sports airport, and also the many brooks
with cold water which is most suited for trout farming. One of these brooks was
running through the place where we had lived for 15 years and over which stands
an old sawmill; a lonely place in the Bavarian
bush how I called it, where the fox came with its puppies to look for shelter
when the winter was too grim.
In this region the ‘Unterinntaler Trachtenverein
Vogtareuth’ has its roots, it was founded in 1920 after the first World War
when city fashion was slowly taking over among the rural population and so
young farmers’ sons and like-minded founded the first association to cultivate
the old traditional costumes and ways. They had their own flag which they had
to hide when the Americans came after the lost 2nd world war who had
not the slightest understanding for such cultural associations and thought
political motive stood behind it and the costumes were a sort of uniform. Many members of the folklore group had died
or were missed in the war and only few members were left. Only in 1947 the
first folkloric activities of the association were taken up again. Today the
association is 93 years old and will soon celebrate its 100th
anniversary.
It filled my heart with warmth to meet the twelve guests and see them dance
the old dances and especially the boys dancing the ‘Schuhplattler’ to which
they beat their thighs and shoes and jump into the air while the girls whirl
around so that their skirts fly high and the white long underpants can be seen.
Turgay Hilmi, who has a second centre of his art,
dance and music school ‘Kibris Sanat’ in the village of Lapta, has brought the
Bavarian Group to Cyprus to take part in the Festival of Lapta. They had
another performance for a charity event of his school at the Near East
University on last Sunday.
I hope they were given the opportunity to see
something of our beautiful just as historical and traditional Cyprus in the
shortness of time and I want to say that we were happy to have them here. The
same I would like to extend to the other groups with their so different cultures
but the common love with the rest of the world for the preservation of it. It
is important to share so that people can understand each other better.
For photos of the other groups - please
go to text No. 527 a under Cyprus Art News