Little geese, come home! Play in the child’s world

The guiding principle of the International Festival of Children's Folk Ensembles FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS is to “teach through play.” The event is of a non-competitive character. The programmes presented by the ensembles should be suited to the children’s age and interpretative capabilities, and they should be based on children’s play and games typical of a given region. Festival participants: Polish and foreign ensembles combine to form comrade pairs that together perform at concerts and accompanying events, which provides the children with an opportunity to become acquainted with one another under the festival circumstances, and to establish closer relationships. These basic premises of the Festival programme have not changed since the first edition in 1992.

The reasons for this, as well as for the power and timelessness of this uniquely devised formula will be discussed by the guests of the first episode of the educational videos series “Little geese, come home! Play in the child’s world”: Marek Harbaczewski, Benedykt Kafel, Anna Olesińska and Bożena Gierczyk; their statements will be supplemented with reflections by Józef Broda from the 2016 interview conducted by Antoni Malczak, the Festival director (1992-2019), and Małgorzata Kalarus, the head of the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS organisation office (2006-2019).

The guest of this two-part episode in the “Little geese, come home! Play in the child’s world” series is Małgorzata Kiereś, an ethnographer and the head of Andrzej Podżorski Beskid Museum in Wisła – a branch of the Cieszyn Silesia Museum.

A reconstructed highland-style chamber inside a 1794 building, which now functions as the seat of the Museum, provides the setting for a talk about children's folklore and its contemporary situation, the forefathers’ heritage, the beauty of the father’s home and respect for tradition. “It is very important for a young person, who can today no longer experience folk culture along with all its constitutive cultural elements of the country, to be able to feel what the logic, coherence and value of the mother’s chamber were” - says the guest in a talk with Marek Harbaczewski, with short, interwoven video clips of performances by children's folk ensembles - participants in the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS.

“A child on stage must be a child” - that is the opening statement of the third episode of “Little geese, come home! Play in the child’s world,” which addresses issues related to the presentation of children’s folklore and the role of a folk ensemble instructor.

This subject is discussed by Oskar Kolberg Award winners and experts affiliated with the Polish section of CIOFF: Michalina Wojtas – an educator, choreographer, folk ensemble instructor, and Benedykt Kafel – an ethnographer, member of the FESTIVAL’S International Artistic Committee since the first edition in 1992. The guests’ statements about what ancient games looked like, manners of rendering them on stage, places in which to look for inspiration while developing programmes, pitfalls to avoid, as well as forms and ways of working with children in different age groups - all these are illustrated with archive clips and programme excerpts straight from the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS stage.

This episode of the “Little geese, come home!” series offers an insight into play in the child’s world from a folk ensemble instructor’s perspective. The work-related reflections and experience presented are those of: Bożena Gierczyk – the leader of ZASADNIOKI Children's Folk Ensemble, a participant in the 2010 and 2015 editions of the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS, and Anna Olesińska – a dance and singing instructor withMAŁOLIPNICANIE Children and Youth Ensemble from Lipnica Mała, a group qualified for and intended to have their festival debut during this year’s, the 28th edition of the Festival.

We are visiting the guests of this episode while they are having their ensemble practice sessions at Maria Konopnicka Primary School in Zasadne and the Orava Culture Centre in Jabłonka, and so we are offered an opportunity to watch the children’s natural space in which they work on a daily basis, preparing programmes and learning... through play.

In the previous episodes of the “Little geese, come home!” series we met with specialists to talk about children's folklore, the instructor’s role, tasks and work, as well as children’s folk ensemble programmes filled with ancient play and games. This time we have invited the best practitioners... children, who will present their own perspective on the world full of rhythm and harmony of play. Let us see and listen to – why it is still worth playing and preserving various forms of play, not only in everyday life, but also in education and on stage. After all, is there anything more beautiful than a heartfelt smile on a child’s face?

And for smiles like this as well as the interview we are grateful to Natalia, Paulina, Martyna, Zuzia, Nadia and Emilka from MAŁOLIPNICANIE, Olga, Łucja, Magda, Ewa, Antek, Martyna, Ania and Julka from ZASADNIOKI, and Alicja, Wojtek, Filip and Kacper from our SOKÓŁ family!

Now that we have taken a look at play through a child’s eyes, it’s time to let ourselves be engrossed in the whirl of traditional folk play along with young artists from MAŁOLIPNICANIE Children and Youth Ensemble from Lipnica Mała, and ZASADNIOKI Children's Folk Ensemble from Zasadne. In the sixth, two-part episode of the series we get to know several kinds of play, including the title one “Little geese, come home!”

To conclude the episode, ethnographer Małgorzata Kiereś shares a short reflection on the relevance of children's folklore for the preservation of intangible cultural heritage. As specialists suggest: the foundation on which to construct a folk performance presenting children's folklore should be composed of the elements that shape the image of the child’s world, i.e. counting-out rhymes, nursery rhymes, games, ditties. And off the stage? We hope that the presented example games and play will become glad inspiration irrespective of the audience age.

In the last episode of the series we visit Dr Dorota Majerczyk, an ethnologist and member of the FESTIVAL’S International Artistic Committee since 2010; she shares some of her reflections and observations on the challenges and problems facing instructors preparing performances based on children’s folklore. 

The lecture also addresses subjects concerned with a textual-musical repertoire, singing and dancing, direction, a local dialect, dress and props, i.e. those elements that most often appear during performances and programme discussions.  We wish you enjoyable performances and see you at the Festival stage!