RUTH VIERA

I was introduced to folk dancing by accident in 1978 in Heidelberg, Germany when I watched a friend and three others work on the Romanian dance, Floricica Olteneasca. I was terribly intrigued and vowed that I would try folk dancing. A year later I started to dance with a group in West Hartford, Connecticut. I can remember the exhilaration of doing my first lively Bulgarian dance in the line. It was Shopska Za Pojas. I knew that Balkan dance would always be a part of my life. However, my involvement was not continuous. I moved to Albany where I did more contra dancing than folk dancing, and then to Thailand where the only dancing I did was to rock and roll music. I moved to New York City in 1986 and looked up folk dancing. I met my future husband, Robert Baclawski, dancing at Columbia. We were married in 1989, and I moved to New Jersey. Then we danced at Jim Gold's group and with the Palisades Folk Dancers. I gradually began to help my husband lead, teach, and coordinate his international folk dance group in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. This was very satisfying to me for many years. Finally, I attended Michael Ginsburg's Wednesday night class where I learned much more about the rhythms of Balkan music and acquired an increased appreciation of Bulgarian and Macedonian dance. In 1995 our son, Thomas, was born. We tapered off a bit on dancing, enlisting the help of a committee to run our group in Cinnaminson. I joined Bosilek in 2000. It is a very exciting privilege and the culmination of years of dancing.