Dance Groups
Czech Beseda Rijeka has three dance groups: Male Ribice (Little Fish), Riječke Ribice (Rijeka Fish), and Adult group of dancers (married couples).
Riječke Ribice
Riječke Ribice are one of top folklore dance groups active within Croatian Czech Union. Besides the Czech community in Croatia, they also represent the city of Rijeka. Choreographies for these young people (ages 15 to 30) are made by Ms. Eva Zetova and Lenka Homolova, choreographers from Prague, who come to Rijeka several times a year and work with our dance groups. The rest of time, the group is led and rehearsed by Snježana Husak. Ms. Zetova also suggested solutions for two sets of beautiful national costumes, which were made of original material brought from the Czech Republic. The group also performs traditional dances from Primorje region, for which they have local traditional costumes.
Riječke ribice perform all over Croatia. Among other, they regularly participate in Harvest festivities and Vonjička – traditional folklore events of the Czech minority in Croatia. They have performed in Rijeka (for example, on all Ethno-fairs), in Kvarner and Istria regions, and in home towns of many other Croatian Besedas. In the Czech Republic, they performed in Bílovice nad Svitavou, Římov, Němčice nad Hanou, Prague, Ostrava, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, Hostěradice i Chomutov.
This dance group had the pleasure of performing for Croatian President Stjepan Mesić and Czech Cardinal Miloslav Vlk. Their performances were seen by Prime ministers and Parliament presidents, secretaries, ambassadors of the Czech Republic in Croatia Kuděla and Buriánek, and numerous times the ex (Njegovan Starek) and current (Zdenka Čuhnil) representatives of Czech and Slovak minorities in Croatian Parliament, as well as many other prominent persons from Croatian and Czech political and cultural life.
Male Ribice
Male Ribice group was founded with intention to be a training group for the Riječke Ribice. The children between ages of 5 and 12 are learning basic dance steps and moves. Once they master this, and grow in quality as well as stature (to be able to wear older group’s costumes), they join the Riječke Ribice. When that happens, a new dancer comes in to fill the emptied space in Male Ribice, and start to learn everything from the beginning. For group leaders, this is rather demanding job, but it makes the joy of success even greater.
Adult group of dancers
Adult group of dancers exists since 1995., when married couples started to dance in the Czech Beseda Rijeka. In their first appearances, they danced together with Riječke Ribice, but soon they separated, and today it is a dance group of five couples. They participated in every parade on the traditional Czech harvest festivities in Croatia, sometimes they dance in those festivities, they perform in Ethno-shows in Rijeka and in other Besedas home towns. In the Czech Republic, they performed in Římov, Hostěradice, Bílovice, Chomutov and Němčice. We are very proud of this group that has been dancing for ten years, because no other Czech association in Croatia has a group of married couples.
The leader of all dance groups is Snježana Husak, who is occasionally helped by members of Riječke Ribice in her work with the youngest group. Marija Dmejchal takes care of the traditional costumes.
