CARPATHIA CLUB TANZGRUPPEN

Forwarded From Carpathia Club Donauschwaben

Kindergruppe Updates

          The Kindergruppe has had a very busy spring and early summer. Besides dancing at Maifest, the Middle Group has been learning how to Schuhplattler with the wonderful help of Paul Schwalbe and Matt Kapraun.  They taught them the Schnacklwalzer Plattler.  The 5-Step took some getting used to, but the kids do enjoy this. As for the girls, they wish they could do a little more than just spin! Our first performance was at Frankenmuth’s Bavarian Festival. The kids all performed so well that the organizers of the Bavarian Festival have asked us to dance again next year, so mark your calendars for the second weekend in June. Thank you Julieanna and Tim Lorenz, as well as Julie LaFave, for assisting with the Middle Group during their first ever Schuhplattler performance.  

2009 Frankenmuth Bavarian_Festival_Carpathia_Kindergruppe

          German Fest and Father’s Day weekend was a busy time for the kids. We danced five times and debuted the Schnacklwalzer Plattler for our Carpathia family.  With moral support from Carsten Grotloh, Chris Kemmer, and Adam Zeig, the boys did an outstanding job. We were also very busy with the Kinderplatz.  Thank you to all the volunteers who helped with games and moonwalk. A big thank you goes out to Barb Roek for spending so much of her time in the Kinderplatz. The games were a hit, judging by the crowds that were around each one.

          The Kindergruppe and Middle Group are now practicing for Labor Day weekend as well as the upcoming OktoberFests in the fall.

Christine Pesta and Cindy Schleis

Christine Pesta	Cindy Schleis

Jugendgruppe

          It is summertime – and for the Jugendgruppe that brings graduation parties! We had many seniors graduate this year, they are all pictured in this edition. Congratulations to the Class of 2009 – we wish you much success and happiness in your future!

          The Jugendgruppe has been quite active this spring and summer. On April 18th, seven couples went to Akron, Ohio for their Trachtenfest. We were greeted at the door with a ‘Welcome Carpathia Jugend’ sign and it was a fun, friendly evening from there on!

          The Maifest at Carpathia gave us a chance to show some new dances and present 10 year membership pins to Sarah Tittjung, Elizabeth Pesta and Laura Reiter.

          Akron hosted the 2nd annual national ‘Jugendlager’ in July. It is open to Jugendgruppe members from throughout the Landesverband.  Carpathia Jugendgruppe was proud to have 3 of its members attend – Elizabeth and Victoria Pesta, and Erika Schleiss, along with their chaperone, Michelle Egger.

          Upcoming events include:  a Jugendtreffen in Toronto, we were invited to a weekend of fun by the Toronto group after they were here for our German Fest/Father’s Day picnic, and I think a few from our group will take them up on it. The GACC’s Deutscher Tag – our Jugend will once again participate in the program.

          And then there is the Donauschwaben Landestreffen held at Carpathia this Labor Day weekend. Everyone is looking forward to meeting up with friends from across the US. That has become a highlight of the year for many groups; the common bond and the friendships formed among  ‘Die Jugend’ is clearly evident on this weekend!

We hope to see all of you there.

Karin Schwalbe

Debbie Kapraun

Rob Schwalbe

Rob Schwalbe_Debbie Kapraun_Karin Schwalbe

SCHUHPLATTLER & KULTURGRUPPE

          The Schuhplattler group has once again dusted off their lederhosen! The Schuhplattler dance group is back and is in the process of honing their dances and developing some new ones. We are scheduled to dance in Rochester later this year and for an Oktoberfest in Lansing. We are always looking for past dancers to come join us and help us remember what we have forgotten.

HINT!! HINT!! NUDGE!! NUDGE!!

          The Carpathia Schuhplattler group meets every Sunday @ 4 pm in the practice room at Carpathia.  New dancers are welcome. 14 and older please, with exceptions, of course.  If you would like more information please contact Carsten Grotloh – 586.255.6527 or Adam Schwager – 586.420.4371.

          The Kulturgruppe has been busy!  Being the young adult group means stepping up and helping out. And due to many of our member’s involvement in the Donauschwaben Tournament, Fathers’ Day Weekend Festival and the up-coming Labor Day Weekend we had to cancel the Retro Dance. We will try to do it next year, if possible. We have also had requests to do another Hoe Down.  Both options are being entertained.

          Our group has gone through some changes. We lost our former leader, Jennifer, and her husband, Jeff, due to the economic times in Michigan. Stephanie, Our Former Assistant Leader, was voted in as the New Leader and has taken the reigns with zest and passion. We meet every Sunday @ 5 pm in The G.A.C.C. room. We are always looking for new members and you don’t have to dance to join us.  If you would like more information please contact Carsten Grotloh – 586.255.6527 or Stephanie Kemmer – 586.899.8633.

Adam Schwager	Stephanie Kemmer	Carsten Grotloh

 CHICAGO AID SOCIETY TANZGRUPPEN 

Forwarded From Chicago Aid Society Donauschwaben

Jugendgruppe

Ron Farland - (847)913-9135 Jugendgruppe Representative

By Erika Neumayer

          As winter comes to an end, the Jugendgruppe is preparing for a busy spring and summer season. Since February, the Jugend has kept quite busy even though there were not many events.

          Our Spingo night that was held on February 6th was a great success and everyone had a great time. Veroni Weiner was the big winner that night at the Valentine's raffle winning a date with one of our members, Alex Anetsberger.

          In March, we served dinner and per­formed at the Kicker's Vension dinner and enjoyed the time with friends and family. Also in March, we were all very happy to see our friend Eric Ehrat, brother of current member Christian Ehrat, who came to visit with Johnny Becker from the Los Angeles Jugend­gruppe. We all had a great time with them during their one-week stay. Eric plans to move back to Chicago at the end of May.

          All of the Jugendgruppe members had a wonderful time at the 55th Anni­versary dinner where we performed the Landler and the Kreuzpolka with the Kindergruppe. Ingrid Lisauskas sang the song, Donauschwaben Kinders Kinder magnificently as the rest of the Jugend sang the chorus. We all really enjoyed dancing with all of the former youth group members as well as seeing all of our older friends who do not cur­rently dance with us.

          Also present at the Anniversary were our friends from Karlsruhe Germany, Christian and Ralf Glide. The members who traveled to Germany in 2007 were very happy to see their friends and Chris­tian and Ralf were excited to meet the other members whom they had not met. Their three-week stay was very busy. They got a tour of downtown Chicago, were given a personal tour of the Chicago Fire Department from Fred Mueller, vis­ited Milwaukee, drove around Wisconsin and even jumped into the Mississippi River. After the Anniversary, they visited Julie and Laurie Davis at the University of Illinois at Champagne Urbana and then visited some friends in Cleveland before heading back to Chicago.

          A small group of Jugend members traveled to Milwaukee for the Landes-verband meeting on April 25th. In addi­tion to listening to the very informative meeting, all the members that were in attendance had a great time celebrating Ingrid Lisauskas's birthday with many other members from other clubs.

Also celebrating birthdays in April were, Danny Pilguy, Jamie Mazur, Jackie Baumann. Peter Lisauskas and Kat Rally. Monika Neumayer cel­ebrated her birthday in March and Erik Lisauskas celebrated his birthday in February.

          In May, there are a few members graduating. Jill Farland is graduating from Northeastern University with a bachelor's degree with honors in Eng­lish literature. Jim Lange is graduating from University of Illinois at Champagne Urbana with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Erika Neumayer is graduation with a bachelor's degree with distinction in apparel design from Dominican University. This degree with distinction is due to her study and anal­ysis of the Trachten. Erika will be travel­ing to India in June to participate in the SDC Global Student Design Competition and during the month of July she will be studying fashion design in Paris. We wish all our graduates the best of luck.

          All of the Jugend members are look­ing forward to a very busy summer and want to thank all of those who have helped us.  A special thank you to Mrs. Irene Rotter for her generous donation as well as an anonymous donor who gave us so much help. We will use those dona­tions to help keep the Donauschwaben traditions alive and well.

Erika Neumayer

Kindergruppe Report

By Christine Slabinger & Monica Gabler

          The kids had most of the winter off and thank goodness for that after the snowy winter we had. We all welcomed the break, but as always, the kids were excited to see the "Club" friends when practices resumed.

          Our first event for the year was the Anniversary & Fruhlings Banquet. The kids had fun dancing especially with the Jugendgruppe. The Anniversary Ban­quet was catered so the kitchen ladies and our Jugengruppe could celebrate with us and the hall was decorated beautifully for the event. As nice as it may have been, we look forward to having our kitchen crew back and our Jugendgruppe serving future events. They are absolutely the best!

          We would like to welcome a couple of new members to our Kindergruppe Family. We welcome the Czvitkouits & Dymitrowicz families who recently joined our Kindergruppe. New members are always welcome, as are children ranging from ages 3-13.

          In the next couple of months we will start getting busy. We have the Memorial Day picnic with the Maria Madel, Maifest on Lincoln Avenue as well as Musikfest in Lake Villa to practice for.

          This summer we have a number of Kindergruppe that are going to move up to our Jugendgruppe.

          Our Kindegruppe committee is working on getting the new mulch spread on the playground area and some benches installed for the park.

CHICAGO DONAUSCHWABEN TANZGRUPPEN

Forwarded From Chicago Donauschwaben

Kindergruppe Updates

    The Kindergruppe had another busy month in May, with practices or performances nearly every weekend.  In fact, we both started and ended the month dancing!

    We began with practice on May 1 to get us ready for the Muttertagsfeier the following weekend.  We quickly brushed up on a few songs so that the children not in the Wochenendschule would be able to confidently join in the singing portion of the program.  Of course, we practiced our favorites, too, which many of the children know by heart by now.  You may have noticed that for the Feier on May 8, the children performed in party clothes rather than their dirndls & leiwls.  We hope that this helped out the moms, who didn’t have to worry about bringing changes of clothing!

    The following weekend we held practice on the 15^th before taking a break for Memorial Day weekend.  Our month ended on May 31^st with a performance at the annual Maifest on Lincoln Avenue, a locale the kids always look forward to (though we’re not sure which they enjoy more: the performing or the carnival games).  As onlookers crowded around, pulling their chairs in as close as they could, they were obviously charmed by the children.  A group seated near me was especially delighted watching our littlest ones, who after only about 8 months have not only mastered their art but are darn cute, too. 

    After that fun-filled month we’re all off for June, the exception being Frau Rill; she will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the North American Federation of German Folk Dance Groups annual workshop.  We’ll be looking forward to learning some of the new dances she brings back from her weekend there when we resume practice this summer. 

Viktoria Johnson

KITCHENER TANZGRUPPEN

Forwarded From Kitchener Donauschwaben

Kindergruppe and Jugendgruppe

            March was a great month for our little dancers. We had lots of time to practice and each week the children are improving. We also had four new dancers join and almost everyone performed at our latest event,  Schlachtfest! It is great to see so many out to take part in our heritage.

            On Sunday, May 3, 2009 our group has been invited to participate in Kinderfest held in Mississauga. We look forward to showcasing our talent. This great event will allow our children to experience other forms of dance and culture.

            Another big decision our group has made is to make new outfits. We have decided to keep our tradition and make new Trachts. We currently have 7 made and in late spring we will begin the process of making new ones for those dancers returning in September. Our hope is to have them all completed for our trip to Detroit for Tag der Donauschwaben.

            We hope to see you at the Schwaben Dancers Social held Sunday, April 26, 2009. Reminder: Practice for Kindergruppe is Thursday’s at 6:30pm. If you are interested in our Kindergruppe or Jugendgruppe, please feel free to contact me for more information.

Lisa Schaadt

Kindergruppe and Jugendgruppe President

rl@netflash.net

UNITED GERMAN HUNGARIANS TANZGRUPPEN

Forwarded From UGH Donauschwaben

Kindergruppe and Jugendgruppe

DANCING AROUND

by Janet Malofiy

    The German Hungarians Children and Teens traveled to West Haven, Connecticut to participate in the Annual Kinderfest. Our hosts, the Harugari Jr. Schuhplattlers did a wonderful job in hosting this annual event geared toward the youth of the mid-atlantic region. The following participated: Michael Fricker, Sasha Malofiy, Jr., Joey Reiter, Nick Walter, Jakob Hubert, Evan Hubert, Jenn Lineman, Allysa Reiter, Sofi Walter, Mikaela Malofiy, Karina Fricker, Kristen Reiter, Emma Water, Catherine Dieterly, Krissy Dieterly, Kyra Malofiy, Sabina Hartman, Karina Wiehan, and Anika Mahadevan. We were entertained throughout the afternoon by Schau-Musi a dynamic duo playing many familiar favorites. Five of our girls were invited to perform Drei laidrige Strumpf with the Die Gemuetlichen Enzianer who had a shortage of little ladies. The girls that danced with Gemuetlichen were Kyra Malofiy, Sabina Hartman, Karina Fricker, Sofi Walter and Emma Walter. Although this event is primarily for the children, the adults were having a great time at the Fest as well! This fest gives us all the opportunity to meet old and new friends from our very own Region whom we do not see as often as we would like.

            At the conclusion of the Kinderfest many slipped into Club tee shirts for Rocktoberfest. Our kids proudly sported their new Black German Hungarians tees (thanks to Mike Curley designs) and switched into party mode. They packed the dance floor as Die Schlauberger jammed for our dancing, listening and (for some: KD of DSB) singing pleasure. This party was a great prep for Gaufest in August which we are all looking forward to. Toledo, Here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

               ST. LOUIS TANZGRUPPEN               

PICTORIAL REPORT

Forwarded From German Cultural Society St. Louis