"Dnyaproŭskiya halasy ŭ Dubroŭnie" sounded

For three days, the Dubrovno region was singing and dancing, surprising with new projects and an extensive program.

– Throughout its history, this creative forum has honorably fulfilled the noble mission of preserving the continuity of generations and multiplying the best traditions of song and music, – noted **Chairman of the Regional Council of Deputies Vladimir Terentyev**. – Each event of the festival is filled with special meaning and forms a unique cultural mosaic. And new projects allow the forum to develop and expand, acquiring a completely different format, which, I think, will take root here.

Dubravushka – 20 years old

In 2019, one of the main brands of the festival – the Dubravushka doll – turned two decades old. Thanks to local craftswomen Klavdiya Gorelikova and Zoya Simutina, the doll began to be presented to all honored guests of the festival. Thus, Dubravushka in a national costume became a brand of the creative forum. 10 years later, it was decided to expand the project and a competition for the best doll was announced among the creative teams participating in "Dnieper Voices in Dubrovno". The works that took prize-winning places remained in the museum's collections. To date, the historical and local lore museum has 190 dolls. This year, a two-day competition for the best work, which masters from different parts of Belarus, Russia, and the Republic of Tatarstan created during the festival, was added to the traditional program.

– This is our first time participating in such a competition, – says Aysiyar, a craftswoman from the Republic of Tatarstan. – We brought several of our dolls from the city of Mamadysh and are demonstrating a master class here in Dubrovno. They are dressed in various outfits, but each of them is in national traditions. It's wonderful that there is such a competition, especially an international one, where you can showcase your skills and see the skills and traditions of other peoples.

And there was indeed something to see – dolls made of fabric, birch bark, straw, wood… And each of them is in a special national costume.

Heritage Returned to its Homeland

The forum program was packed with events dedicated to the Year of Small Motherland. The most significant event was the transfer of the reconstructed "Bible for the People" by the folk lubok master Vasily Koren to the local history museum. Now, in addition to the most famous museums in Italy, England, Venice, France, Mexico, Germany, and Russia, such an edition is available in Dubrovno. It was brought to the historical homeland of the engraver from the Russian Academy of Folk Art.

– I am glad to pay homage to the land of Dubrovno, which gave birth to the great master Vasily Koren, – said Viktor Penzin, president of the Academy and vice-president of the RusCultFond, at the solemn opening of the exhibition. – 325 years after the creation of the "Bible for the People," we are opening the first exhibition of engravings by a native of this land on Belarusian soil. Koren's heritage has returned home. I have been working towards this day for 35 years. When I first started reconstructing the pages of the Bible, I never imagined that I would one day stand on the land of my idol and reverently open an exhibition in his honor.

The renowned Moscow artist announced to those present his decision to create a monument to Vasily Koren and install it near the local history museum in Dubrovno at the 27th International Festival next year.

 

Another significant festival event dedicated to the Year of Small Motherland and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus was the premiere of the play "Don't Leave Me" with the participation of Belarusian actor and playwright, a native of the village of Kleny, Dubrovno district, Aleksei Dudarev, who played the role of a colonel in the play.

Aleksei Anufrievich expressed regret that he does not often visit his small motherland.

– I only have warm memories of Dubrovno region in my soul, – noted the playwright. – It is always warm and soulful here. In my opinion, there is no such concept as a small motherland. There is simply a motherland. We are all human and we should all take care of our native home.

Down the Main Street with an Orchestra 

The review competition of folk instrument orchestras gathered almost three hundred people in Dubrovno. Under the creative dome of the festival, artists from all corners of the Vitebsk region united. And throughout Saturday, live music sounded on several stages at once – the main stage, in the children's park, near the art school, the Belgosstrakh building, and the historical and local lore museum.

 

Each of the 16 ensembles prepared three numbers: instrumental performance, vocals, and recitations. The repertoire is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus.

– This year we didn't have to sit still, – says the chairman of the jury, Honored Worker of Culture of Belarus Nikolai Pashinsky. – Adult and children's orchestras were scattered throughout the district center. This project is one of the youngest at the festival. It also serves as a kind of test of the creative capabilities of the Vitebsk region – how the ensembles grow professionally, develop. I am glad that there is dynamics, there is development.

The highlight of the program was recitation with orchestra accompaniment. Here, the musicians had to feel the reciter: make pauses, reach climaxes, etc., at the right time. And all 16 ensembles succeeded in this.

Not only the competition of folklore, dance and vocal ensembles, their performances on the main stage of the district and the final gala concert were popular with the audience. The exhibition of hospitable, thematically decorated courtyards of rural Houses of Culture, institutions and enterprises of the district, and exhibitions of folk craftsmen also aroused interest. A theatrical procession, a concert by the Belarusian group "Drozdы", a gala concert with the participation of the G. Titovich National Academic Folk Choir of Belarus. It was crowded at the night disco, which, along with the fireworks, concluded the rich festival program.

OLGA LEBEDEVA, "Vitebskie vesti".