35 years of The Serbian Cultural Association (SCA) Oplenac

For most of us growing up in Yugoslavia, the folk-dance musical treasury of our people was something that bound us to the past, from which we often took a detour, rushing into the bright future on the wings of popular music from the West. We identified with the music we love, copied the visual identity of its protagonists, which gave us a sense of freedom but also wings, which lift us above our local environment. When we landed in that western world, we realized that our superior knowledge of western culture and music doesn’t automatically ensure the position of citizens of the world and that our musical idols are often just bolts in the machinery of the music business. We faced the fact that our favorite music was nowhere in the West, neither on the radio nor on television, except on our old CDs, brought from home. Listening to them sometimes, while we are stuck somewhere on the road, those songs brought us back to the past and youth, but somehow their magic has faded. We discovered that the neighborhood of Svilen konac or Niška Banja is music that calms, relaxes and strengthens us. And paradoxically, for the first time, many of us discovered the beauty and richness of the music and traditions of our people only in emigration.

The Serbian Cultural Association Oplenac from Toronto has been revealing to us for three and a half decades the values and charms of song, dance, folk-dance, language, customs and spirit of the Serbian people. After a two-year break due to the pandemic, this largest Serbian cultural institution in Canada marked its 35^th anniversary on April 30^th with a wonderful music and singing concert in which all the ensembles performed. In today's time of alienation, when you can hardly separate both the young and the old from the screen and the comfort of self-sufficiency, Oplenac brought us together in the creation of a common magic, the woven purity of ringing girls' voices, the strength of young men's cries, the tiny embroidery of the tambourine, the beat of the drum and the fragile children's voices whose very appearance on stage causes the audience to be delighted. The young and talented Miloš Mutapčić masterfully led a large National Orchestra in which, in addition to old members, professional musicians and amateurs, young participants of the tambourine school also got their chance to perform.

Even in the darkest days of collective isolation, Oplenac was active and creative, connecting and creating. The artistic director Saša Bogunović and music director Miloš Mutapčić produced a video clip in which our folklorists from all over the world, from Canada to Australia via Serbia, sing and play the song Ovo je Srbija. This interpretation and appearance of hundreds of performers, our beautiful youth from all over the world, warmed our souls and awakened national pride in the cold days of isolation due to the COVID pandemic.

Moreover, this song ended the big annual concert that Oplenac held on May 29^th, 2022. Even if the rehearsals were impossible for epidemiological reasons until March, and the membership also reduced a bit because many families returned to their homelands, this year we witnessed a unique spectacle that delighted us. The concert opened with the song Sedam sati udara Beograd se otvara, otvara ga Karađopđe u njega da dođe. The dance of boys and girls in city costumes took us to Belgrade from the beginning of the 19^th century, which was brought to life by the projection of original film footage of Belgrade at that time. If only our leader could have known that one day he would be sung about with such ardour in distant Canada, that in the group that bears the name Oplenac where his eternal resting place is. Then the young toastmaster Maksim greeted us with a long and witty toast and introduced us to the "Suitcase of memories” as this beautiful event was called, held on the big stage of the theater in Burlington.

And that suitcase full of youth, beauty, talent, rhythm and melody starts an eruption of joy, but also a few tears of joy. There were dances and songs from all Serbian areas: Igre Lepenice, igre sa Korduna, igre Srba kumanovskog kraja, igre Jadra, igre Like, igre Dimitrovgrada, igre Kosovskog pomoravlja, then Došlo pismo iz Bosne and Oće ćaća da me ženi, Marijo deli bela Kumrijo and other our songs "from the past, full of glory and grace". All the ensembles performed - from children's groups, through the second and third ensembles, to the representative ensemble. As each group appeared more and more beautiful, more wonderful, more playful, and all by imagination and in the realization of the choreographer and artistic director of SCA Oplenac, Saša Bogunović, who joined his dancers on stage at the end of the concert.

As an ethnochoreologist and a specialist in traditional folk dance, Mr. Bogunović deals with authentic and original choreography based on studious study and travel in Serbia and other Serbian countries and recording the history of original dances, costumes and music. In his research work, he sometimes writes down only a few original steps that he studies, he harmonizes with other newly discovered steps and then when there are enough new elements, he creates display of choreography for a known or as yet unknown game. This approach is a departure from the ballet stylization of steps, which is a common approach in folk-dance choreographies, and with the aim of the main mission of Oplenac to preserve Serbian culture and tradition and pass it on to younger generations in its original form.

After the concert, we gather impressions for a long time in the atrium of the theater. Guests, parents of young and old players, friends of the participants, many do not understand Serbian, but here they understood everything. Everyone is enchanted by the beauty of folk costumes that Mrs. Katica Maljković, the grandmother of little Katica from the youngest group, has been sewing for 15 years. Mr. Consul Vasilije Petković reveals to us that in previous years, when he brought his colleagues, consular representatives of other countries, to the gala concerts of Oplenac, he had to convince them that Oplenac was not an association from the motherland, because they could not believe that the participants grew up in Canada. They say that their cultural аssociations in Canada are few and have no young people but only older members. It could resemble a folk-dance group for recreational women, which is also active in Oplenac, but there is no place for them on the big stage next to the younger "professionals", so they can show their playing skills at parties and cultural evenings that are often organized in the premises of the Oplenac association.

We meet the mother of Nemanja and Nikola, two players from another ensemble, who regularly brings them to rehearsals from Oshawa, where the family lives, to Mississauga, where the premises of the Oplenac association are located, which is about 100 kilometers away. Parents are the discreet heroes of this whole story and success, because if it weren't for them and their sacrifice to guide and keep children on this path, it would hardly be possible for any other cultural code to reach their attention nowadays except for Anglo-Saxon and popular culture.

After the concert, at a banquet in the association's premises, awards were given to the best dancers, which is always the most difficult decision choreographer Saša has to make. The big hall is full of people, both young and old have gathered, children are chasing each other, beautiful girls with remnants of stage make-up, who have changed their costumes for dresses, and their opanak for high heels, then again they get into the circle, just as confident and graceful. The new generation of guys captivates with their sharp movements and strength in the favorite game of the Six. There is a crowd around the tables on which there is gourmet ikebana, made of a variety of savory and sweet treats, prepared by hardworking volunteers. In her speech, the president of the SCA Oplenac Dragana Varaklić also thanked them in particular, who said that the aim of the association's existence is to serve Serbian youth, generation after generation, and that Oplenac is our house, which we must carefully preserve and hand over to our descendants for further protection.

It is a very popular fact that Serbian children gathered in the choir, folk-dance ensemble, theater and all other creative forms of SCA Oplenac, socialize with each other and in private, and that in these 35 years, several marriages have been concluded between them. Those weddings are celebrated loudly in the Serbian way and it has been talked about for a long time. Then they bring their children to Oplenac, the children follow the path of their parents and get caught in the circle that goes around, the tradition is nurtured and preserved.

Our nation has many heroes who have remained as beacons for generations, and for Serbs in Canada, Oplenac is the greatest cultural beacon, and those who created it, who make it today and who will protect it tomorrow, are true heroes. To many summers!