On October 19, 2019, the final of the National Folk Dance Competition named after Jacek Lewandowski’s “5 minutes for oberek”. It was the second edition of this event. Participants could compete in two categories: in the traditional form for authentic couples and in the stylized form for folk dance groups (groups).

The goals of the project for the authentic couples category were documentation of oberek as traditional folk dance, education of other contestants and spectators, registration of outstanding rural dancers as carriers of dance tradition, continuing the intergenerational transmission in cultivating dance traditions, and for groups (groups): approximation of oberek as dance traditional, and at the same time as national dance, creating opportunities and a field for confrontation for folk choreographers, continuing the intergenerational message in cultivating dance traditions. Participation in national competitions, reviews or festivals also requires participants to have structured knowledge about the dance they will present. Therefore, the implementation of the task was conducive to deepening knowledge about oberek among competition competitors.

The competition was attended by members of the Wielkopolanie Folklore Group, Agata Pospiech and Szymon Obolewicz, who performed in the category of authentic couples presenting oberek from the Szamotuły region. The jury composed of dr hab. Tomasz Nowak – chairman, Marta Lewandowska and Leszek Rembowski honored our dancers by giving them second place.

AP