Folklore ensemble
Rija
After the Baltica festival review concert, 15 December 2002
Name: Rija
meaning: threshing barn, drying-house, kilnhouse
recommended transcription in English: Rija
approximate pronunciation in English: Riya
Listen pronunciation in AU format (9 Kb)
Created: autumn 1989
Location: Riga
Leader: Dzidra Rijniece
Number of participants: 45, of them by age:
younger than 14 years: 7
from 14 to 24 years: 22
from 25 to 44 years: 7
from 45 to 64 years: 5
older than 64 years: 4
and by gender:
males: 20
females: 25
Forms of activity: sing, play music, dance, play roundelays
Musical insruments:
accordion,
violin,
kokle (psaltery),
pipe,
flute,
drum,
devil drum and other percussions.
Description: In 1992 Rija started her active work under the leadership of the
teacher of Riga's 93'th secondary school Dzidra Rijniece. The motto of
Dzidra and Rija was "The nation without a past has no a future".
At the beginning there were 11 adults and 9 children, mostly pupils, teachers
and high school lecturers that came together to dance and to sing about the
beauty of Latvia's nature, of work, festivities and people. At the end of
1995 there were already 24 people in Rija, but more and more
people wanted to dance and sing. At the beginning of year 2003 there are 45
participants in Rija, at the age from 4 to 70. There are two groups of
dancers in Rija: children group and adult group. In the children dance
group there are 8-9 years old pupils. The dances are accomponed by 4-6
musicians, who are playing Latvian folk instruments.
Rija has learnt traditional Latvian festivity songs, dances and
special ritual games. Rija know, how to celebrate Latvian
calendar festivities and holidays. Rija often visits schoolsa and old
people's homes in Riga and in other regions of Latvia. The ensemble could be
called a group of Latvian songs, dances and games, because when Rija
performs, it tries to involve all the people to dances, songs and games.
Rija successfully takes part in cultural events of Latvia. The group
has been performed also in Austria, Switzerland, Poland and England.
In 2001, Rija performed in 60 concerts in different places of
Latvia.
In Old Riga together with the president of Latvia V.Vike-Freiberga and president of France J.Chiraque, July 2001
Address:
in Latvian:
Dzidra Rijniece, Avotu 68-11, Rīga, LV-1009, Latvija
in English:
Dzidra Rijniece, Avotu str. 68-11, Riga, LV-1009, Latvia
Phone: (+371) 9492682
E-mail: askudra_N@N_latnet.lv (Atis Skudra)
Date of presenting the information: 2 July 2003