Klub Triglav

TRIGLAV FOLKDANCING GROUPS

From the very beginning of the Triglav Club there were performances by slovenian children in national costumes
at the various functions. It was not easy to find a real national costume, so many mothers started sewing the costumes
for their children, to give Slovenian character to Mothers day, Fathers day and other celebrations. Very early a folk dancing group was organised by Maria Košorok and under her command the young dancers of all ages performed as quite independent group wherever they were invited. Maria was a very accomplished seamstress and most often made the costumes for the dancers, at other times she advised parents how to go about it and organised the children to sing Slovenian songs and to dance simple dances.

In the 1974 a senior group was organised, mostly from the ranks of the Triglav Club Committee members and their wives
and partners. The group had six to eight couples and the first teacher was Nikola Ristevski, accompanied by young Martin
Konda on accordion. Many of them had the costumes professionally made at their own expense, others made the costumes
themselves, including the embroidered head coverings.

They performed for many years at local ethnic festivals, at the Club's cultural functions and also at both of the Slovenian Style Country Weddings in Wollongong (1975 and 1977). Teacher Nick Ristovski was followed by Branka Vrkič and finally by Drago Pogačar, an excellent teacher, but not very effective because he lived in the city and not having a car he missed more training sessions than he attended, so slowly the group dissolved. The second Triglav Dancing group ( called
"The Young Ones"), consisting of the second generation of young Slovenians , started after the new club building was
open in the year 1982.

Under the guidance of the teacher Erna Nikolić the young Triglav Folklore dancing group reached the top of their
achievements. It was a big group divided into two smaller groups, according to age.
The group enjoyed tremendous popularity and the regular Friday night's training sessions attracted a great number of
supporters, friends and families. Originally they were dancing the dances from Slovenian region of Gorenjsko with the
most popular Slovenian costumes of wide dark skirt, white blouse, cape- like coloured scarf and headscarf embroidered
with gold. With the help of nimble fingers of Mary Ostric, who doubled as a part manageress and part wardrobe mistress and some other dancers' mothers the group acquired the second set of costumes, characteristic for the region of Bela Krajina, all white with the touches of red and they performed the first time in those costumes in Sydney Opera House at Shell Folkloric Festival in the year 1985.They also performed at the first anniversary of the Triglav club opening and many other ethnic festivals and various other occasions. The performances were so successful they decided on the third set of costumes, from the region of Prekmurje when the older group was finishing high school and moving on to more demanding studies. For a while they still got together to perform at special occasions, but soon that was the end of it, the older group dispersed and soon the younger group followed suit.