White Eagle Folk Dance Academy
Bringing you spectacular folklore
This quarterly Newsletter “The Eagle News” is distributed by mail and made available at all our events. It keeps our supporters and fans up to date on what’s happening with the Academy. We have now made it available on our web and our facebook pages.
Please join our group at Facebook or check back here periodically to stay informed.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s and even into the 80’s, many people from the Polish community of Montreal used to come together to celebrate St. Joseph’s Day, which falls on March 19th every year. Now this date of course falls in the middle of Lent, but because of the special status of Saint Joseph, the Catholic Church has always and continues to allow dispensation from Lent in order to give honour to this saint.
Somewhere along the way, and this seems to be a regular part of our society these days, a minority of people began to to find this celebration to be totally uncatholic and anybody seen going to these events were soon gossiped about. It went so far that almost all organisations have given up even trying to host an event on that day. Now in a recent conversation with a priest, he informed us that by all means we should be celebrating this day in some form and that it is even uncatholic to not be celebrating. In 2012 March 19th falls on Monday and so we discussed this fact and that it would be folly to try and do something on a Monday. He went on to tell us that the nearest Saturday to the 19th would be very acceptable in the eyes of the church.
I think it is time we get rid of this myth and so on March 17th of 2012 we plan on bringing back the honoured tradition of celebrating St. Joseph in all his glory for the sake of the community and more importantly for the spirit of the community. We hope that you will come share the evening with us! Everyone is welcome.
St. Joseph’s Day Zabawa
MARCH 17TH, 2012 at 8:00P.M.
1956 Frontnac, Montreal, QC
Tickets are 20$ and can be bought by calling Pawel at 514-805-6134
The popular band KORONA will be playing and both the Tatry Ensemble from Oshawa, Ontario and Akademia will be performing. The Bar and Kitchen will be serving for your delight and we will have a few surprises up our sleeves to keep you entertained.
In September, with the expansion of the White Eagle Folk Dance Academy, the decision was made to invest in brand new hand-made costumes from Poland. The annual “Back 2 School” discotheque was organized by the members of the ensemble with the goal of raising funds to initiate the order and raise the deposit money needed. Three Thousand Dollars was successfully raised that evening and the order was placed. With the work already underway at the factory in Chełmno, Poland, the members have now turned their attention to raising the funds needed to pay the balance. Several contracts have been signed for future paying performances in the upcoming months, the ensemble has been incorporated, donations have been solicited and the Academy has given top quality performances at many high-profile events to encourage public support. The White Eagle Society has thrown their support behind the Academy and with their help we expect to attain our goal within the next couple of months. We are eternally grateful for all their support and hope that many of our fellow Montrealers will soon follow their lead.
Running and maintaining an efficient wardrobe that meets the needs of the academy is almost a full time job and is quite expensive. With multiple performances two to three times a month precision to detail can be quite demanding. Like most folk groups, the costume pieces are handmade and unique and cannot be purchased from the local Walmart. Each region, town, city, area has its own style and to keep the folklore in its truest form we strive to match as much as possible to what our ancestors once wore those many hundreds of years ago. 
Now usually when most of you go clothes shopping, you look for one or tow pieces that will look great. When we go shopping for clothes we tend to think in sets of 8 or 12 and in matching costumes for both men and women. Each costume is of course made up of multiple articles and so when we order a set of costumes for ONE region we actually end up having to buy well over 100 individual pieces. Now these costumes are an investment and will be used by generations of dancers to come so it is definitely money well spent and is an integral part of keeping our heritage alive.
As we pursue our goals, we must always think of investing in our future. Costume purchases on the horizon include Polish costumes from Cieszyn, Lowicz, Spisz, Kurpie, Bilgoraj, Beskid and the nobility. We also look to include costumes from our homeland of Canada, as well as, Romania, Italy and Russia. Add to all of this the extra elements that are always needed like linen, beads, belts, gloves, headpieces, flowers etc. and one begins to get the idea of the tremendous cost of running an ensemble.
Already we have invested tens of thousands of dollars into this adventure and we have no intention of stopping now. Not only do we do our part to ensure that the craftsmen and craftladies who make these beautiful costumes always have a job, but we use these costumes on a regular basis to bring pleasure and cultural education to millions of people. Our necessity for these costumes also keeps the traditional art of making these costumes alive and well also. This world needs beauty and we intend to do our part.