This evening we want to take a few minutes to recognize something that became a very special part of the Alliance College story – the Kujawiaki Polish Folk Dance Ensemble.
Like so many great Alliance stories, this one started simply. In 1964, a handful of students, led by a talented and enthusiastic young lady named Gardenia Wojtuszewska, decided to form a Polish folk dance group.
I don’t think any of them could have imagined what they were starting.
By 1965, Jan Sejda – “Pan Sejda” to generations of students – had been brought to Alliance to turn that small group of enthusiastic young people into a true Polish folk ensemble.
And what a person to do it!
Pan Sejda had been an original member of Poland’s renowned Mazowsze ensemble. He studied ballet, theater, and choreography, and traveled the Polish countryside, learning and preserving his homeland’s regional songs and dances. He brought all of that knowledge to our little college in northwestern Pennsylvania, and Kujawiaki was born.
Over the years, other directors took the reins, and each left a piece of themselves behind.
In 1973, Ronald Galasinski took the lead. A Duquesne University Tamburitzan, he added something unexpected to the repertoire: an “All-American Set” of old hoedown music and square dancing.
So the following year, Christine Marchewka-Pawlowski took charge. One of Pan Sejda’s original student performers, she returned to Alliance as director after advanced studies in Slavic literature and theater, bringing those influences with her.
In 1978, fellow alum Lawrence Kozlowski took the lead. He additionally enriched the ensemble with his administrative experience and ethnographic material researched during his studies in Poland.
Regina Jaworski, another of Pan Sejda’s original student performers, served as director from 1983 to 1985 while Mr. Kozlowski took a leave of absence. Kozlowski returned and was the director when the college closed in 1987.
Through all those years, a treasured Technical Director, Prof. Blair Matejczyk, an Alliance professor of mathematics and physics, problem solver, photographer, and consistent supporter of the group, was there. He brought a wealth of experience, patience, understanding, and love to all the Kuj members from beginning to end.
Together, they helped build something remarkable.
Kujawiaki served as an ambassador for Alliance College and Polish culture.
Over its 21-year history, Kujawiaki presented more than 700 folk concerts. The ensemble performed from New England to Texas, from the White House in Washington, D.C., to Rzeszow, Poland. Beginning with its first international tour in 1977, Kujawiaki earned acclaim for bringing Polish music, dance, costumes, and traditions to audiences at home and abroad. Wherever Kujawiaki went, they took a little piece of the College with them.
But those accomplishments tell only part of the story.
I think what happened offstage may be every bit as important.
For the students affectionately known as “Kujies”, it meant five-week summer workshops where they learned new material. It meant rehearsals and performances, costumes and travel … and probably more than a few adventures better left out of tonight’s official history.
It created friendships that have lasted decades, some epic short-term romances, and quite a few legit Alliance love stories, too.
More than one student discovered that the person standing beside them in rehearsal – or perhaps holding their hand during a dance – would eventually become the person standing beside them for life.
Between rehearsals, performances, and those long bus trips — which means there are entire families here today that quite literally exist because of this little Polish folk ensemble at Alliance College. That’s a legacy.
But perhaps the greatest measure of Kujawiaki’s impact is what happened after Alliance.
Many former members carried what they learned here back to their own communities. Some went on to establish their own Polish folk dance groups. Others continued performing with ensembles in the cities and towns where they settled. They taught, choreographed, volunteered, made costumes, organized festivals, and kept sharing the traditions that had become such an important part of their lives.
Then something wonderful happened. They passed those traditions to another generation.
They encouraged their children to dance, and later their grandchildren. In that way, our small college’s influence reached far beyond what anyone could have imagined. Even today, descendants of Kujawiaki alums continue to perform and celebrate the Polish folk traditions their parents and grandparents embraced at Alliance. So people who will never know the pleasure of walking through the Polish pines at our alma mater on the hill still carry a piece of that experience within them.
An old Kujawiaki history says its members learned much more than songs and dances. They developed “an underlying love of heritage.” More than 60 years after those first students decided to form a folk dance group, we can safely say they succeeded.
Tonight, we honor all of you who helped make that happen.
So now, I’d like to ask everyone in this room who was ever a member of the Alliance College Kujawiaki — whether you danced, sang, played music, worked behind the scenes, or in any way helped bring those performances to life — please stand and remain standing.
Take a look around.
This is the Kujawiaki.
Dziękujemy, Kujies. Thank you for keeping the music, the dances, the friendships, the heritage — and the spirit of Alliance College — alive.
Please join me in recognizing the Alliance College Kujawiaki.