Wednesday, October 15, 2008

NEW ARCHANGEL DANCERS


The next event during Alaska Day weeklong festivities that we attended was the New
Archangel Dancers season finale. They perform all summer long here in town for the 
thousands of tourists that visit but they save their favorite performance for the locals, 
which was Monday night.

I took a lot of pictures but the lighting was very bright on stage and very dark in the
audience, so my camera was working very hard to take photos. The costume colors
were spectacular and the dancing was amazing!

Here is a bit of history on this all-women dance troupe:

Over 130 years ago Sitka was owned by Russia and was known as 
New Archangel, Capital of Russian America. Taking their name from
 history, the New Archangel Dancers organized in 1969 to preserve a
 part of Sitka's Russian History through the art of dance. The original 
troupe formed with eight dancers and put on four performances their 
first season for visitors to Sitka. The initial four dances performed 
by the group came from a variety of sources including a children's 
book of Russian songs and dances and Bishop Theodosius, who was 
stationed at the Russian Orthodox Church in Sitka at that time.

The New Archangel Dancers continually promote Alaska as a visitor 
destination by sharing knowledge of Sitka's Russian History and 
their pride in Alaska. None of the New Archangel Dancers are 
professional dancers nor do they have Russian lineage.

The Dancers' success and notoriety have been enhanced by regular
 guest performances at the opening of new Alaska Airlines terminals, 
at Alaska Governors' inaugural celebrations, and at various dance 
festivals, tourism trade shows, conferences and public events. In 
addition to performing throughout the "lower 48" the dancers have 
performed to enthusiastic audiences in Hawaii, Japan, Russia, 
Mexico and the Caribbean.











The next Alaska Day event we will be attending is the 9th Army 
Band concert. They are pretty awesome--I may have to switch to a 
video camera so I can share...






5 comments:

Becky said...

That looks great! I love watching dance shows.

Laura ~Peach~ said...

awesome history... I love history and dance is fantastic!

Laura ~Peach~ said...

yep as soon as it gets here you sure will see a picture :) they sent a second email saying that it would be mailed tomorrow :) i am excited!

Anonymous said...

Very cool

Caution/Lisa said...

Those Alaska Day celebrations sound fantastic.

Are there many people in Alaska with Russian roots?