Jugendgruppe
performs in Competition
September
2-4, 2011
By:
Rose Hauer
Forwarded
by Chicago Donauschwaben
On Friday September 2, nineteen Jugendgruppe members and their
families packed their cars and vans and traveled to Mansfield, Ohio to
participate in the Landestrachtenfest. With large Tracht boxes, normal
costume attire and all the amenities everyone was ready for the long
weekend!
The events began on Saturday September 3, when our Jugend participated
in a workshop with other Jugendgruppen to learn new dances. The parade
followed with all the Donauschwaben groups from the USA, Canada, and
the Saar group from Hungary marching into the soccer field for the
beginning of the festivities. After several short speeches the program
was shortened due to the high heat index. The afternoon followed with
performances by Kindergruppes, Jugendgruppes and Kultur groups. The
Chicago Donauschwaben Jugendgruppe performed during the dinner hour
and caught the attention of the audience with a new dance “Feuer auf
dem Dach”. This dance was choreographed by the older Jugend ladies.
Our Jugend then performed two additional traditional dances. The
audience enjoyed what they saw and the applause was boisterous! Much
later in the evening a pizza party was held at the hotel for the
Jugend members and their families.
On Sunday September 3, it was finally time to participate in the
Tanzwettbeweb (competition). Our Jugendgruppe began working on their
competition program in January 2011. The rules of competition stated
that each group’s performance had to include 15 minutes of song,
dance and speaking (either performing a poem or skit) in German or
Schwobisch. The practices were frequent but the end result was
powerful! The Jugendgruppe ladies looked amazing with their braided
hair and all the beautiful traditional Trachten they wore representing
different Donauschwaben towns. The young men were also in their best
attire with nicely polished shoes. Six of our Jugend members recited
the poem “Trachtenfescht” (written by Eugen Philips) and were the
only group performing that spoke in Schwobisch. Thank you to Gregory
Sheyka, Alexandra Toth, Elisabeth Toth, Markus Thut, Stefanie Lorenz,
and Elizabeth Hauer for doing an outstanding job on the poem. The
group sang two songs “O Du Donautal “and “ Wo Die Donau fliesst
nach
Süden
” with guitar accompaniment by Eric Hauer. The songs sounded angelic
and the enunciation was excellent. As for the dancing not to sound
biased- but it was phenomenal!
Although we did not win the Awender Cultural Prize, we were awarded
the status of “Silver Award” and the Jugend was proud of their
performance! The most important part of this competition weekend was
not to win a prize but to feel a connection tour unique culture, have
fun, make new friendships, and acquire a sense of accomplishment! Our
Jugend worked with great dedication for themselves, their leaders and
their club. They will remember these moments for the rest of their
lives and so will the many people that shared in the experience.
Maria, and I along were their parents, Vorstand and club members are
so impressed and proud of these young men and women. Please take a
moment and watch their performance on YouTube at: HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/chicagodonau"
www.youtube.com/chicagodonau
Jugendgruppe leaders and members would like to thank Liz Meyer for
assisting us with vocal preparations and choreography; Eric Hauer for
playing the guitar; Helga Blaumueller and Annerose Goerge for lending
their Trachten; Sophie Giess, Joann Fernandez, Rosina Schwager and
Elise Toth for braiding hair, and Franz Rally for polishing all the
shoes! A special thank you to Nina Mayer and Marianne Strumberger for
representing the Chicago Donauschwaben as our competition judges. I
apologize if I forgot anyone—our most heartfelt “thank you”!