The Heaven’s Gate

I am standing at the gate of St. George Serbian Orthodox Cemetery in Pittsburgh. This is not my first time here. I visited the cemetery several times, each time during different season of the year.

This time, the cemetery does not reminding me of the great poem by Dr. Aleksandar Petrov, a known poet and editor of “American Srbobran. (The poem should definitely be read.) This time, the cemetery reminds me of a film by Michael Cimino. The film carries the same title as this article. (The film should definitely be seen.)

I am entering and my eyes begin to follow row after row of tombstones that, as by the rule, carry Serbian crest with four “C”. Some tombstones are meticulously maintained. Others are slanted and slightly sunk; they do not have any descendents anymore. Trbovic, Mamula, Musulin, Zatezalo, Popovic. There are even Kovacevics. We are not related; they mostly derive ancestry from Krajina – Lika, Kordun, Banija and North Dalmatia.

I am passing by a lot that provokes nostalgia in me every time. It is a child’s grave. A small graves, small thumb stones, but with big Serbian Crest. For a countless time, I am reading names, date of birth, date of death… Some of them lived only a few days, but already christened in the St. Sava church. Those were that kind of times; people were dying from colds because for medicine there was no money.

Like other immigrants from East Europe at the turn of the 20^th century, Serbs worked the hardest jobs in the toughest of conditions, poorly paid and degraded. That was “the promised land” they came to. The dignity was the only thing they had left. Partially because of this, Serb from Pittsburgh and vicinity organized their own society in distant 1901. At least now they had someone to burry them when time comes. Later, from this nucleic organization emerges the largest and the oldest Serbian organization in North America – Serb National Federation. They were building churches, organized cultural and sports societies, strived to preserve their fait, language and tradition. They were helping the ancestral lands with monetary donation and with lives by enlisting into volunteer brigades for all wars. The roots and connection with the motherland had to be preserved at any cost. There, far away (Tamo Daleko)…

Right next to the Serbian cemetery there is Jewish cemetery. I don’t know if this was coincidence or not. From one elevated peak with a wooden cross, I can see David stars on the top of Jewish thumb stones. (One of my sons name is David.)

I am lighting a candle under this cross, then I sit down on a meticulously cut grass and light a cigarette. I am opening a small bottle of “Slivovitz” that I brought to share with my ancestors. I spill a bit on the grass and than take a sip. I light another cigarette and leave it burning under the cross. Who knows when they had their last cigarette?

I am beginning to feel afraid. I am afraid of disunity. I am afraid of a possibility that Serbs here in North America and “there far away” in the Motherland cannot find modus vivendi for common and supreme national interest. I am afraid that we may lose our state, and then wait another thousand years for us to make it again. Just like Jews. There is little time. For us it is “five after twelve” not “five to twelve”.

I am leaving the cemetery stopping by the gate again thinking about Cimino’s film. Was the Elis Island the “Heaven’s Gate” where the immigrants disembarked their ships, or was this gate?

For us, who should continue the tradition, there are many difficulties and tasks ahead. These Serbs, who are lying behind this Heaven’s Gate, whose unselfish efforts have left something behind, are at least serene in their eternal rest.

 

Dragan Kovacevic

The Art of Folk Dance

    Movement is as natural and as important to human life as breathing air. And just all-living bodies breathe, so, if you choose to define dance in its broadest sense, do all moving bodies dance.

    Dance is a sign of life pressing itself out trough the body, which is why it is so exciting to see and to do. It both stirs us with its energy, and satisfies us with its harmony. We all naturally want to move in harmony with the world, in harmony with other people, with the objects around us, and, in a more abstract sense, with our own lives.

    Dance speaks in a very special language, both to the doer, and to the watcher. It speaks of things that are impossible to put into words. Young people often find it especially satisfying to be involved in dance when they don’t yet have the language to express the complicated emotions and ideas involved in growing up. Adults find dance brings to the surface emotions and feelings that often cannot be reached, or acknowledged.

     Ancient Greeks believed that the Goods invented dancing and therefore they had associated it with their religious and worshipping ceremonies. They believed that Goods offered this gift to some select mortals only, who in turn taught dancing to their fellow men.

    Nevertheless, science knows that dances and songs were born in the very beginning of human being, from its life style, work and believing.

    The magic religious complex, custom and ritual dances, dances with dramatic and mimic elements and others of the type, represent the human fear of everything unknown, of nature and the willingness to overcome them, to release and unburden oneself. But whatever the significance of the dance sign may be, its symbolic function, its aestethic power and its possible asceticism, it always remains in variable proportions, as a motor activity which finds its own aim.

     In Serbian folk heritage most common dance is KOLO. Kolo is an old Serbian word and means a CIRCLE. And circle is the most perfect cosmic, geometric and at same time life form. Circle is the first anthropologic, human sign. In Serbian, Kolo means a circle dance and dance in general. The Serbian people conceive the Kolo as a gathering, as a mean to get together, to dance as community which guards itself from the inside. People are tied in the Kolo, the magic circle, by holding hands and they feel stronger, because they belong to a community, and as such they are capable to defend themselves and resist the calamities and difficulties of life.

    But this is not the only type of Serbian dance.

    The versatility of Serbian folk dances, their richness in types, forms, styles, melody and rhythm, music, songs, customs speak about the specific conditions in which they originated. The dance of the people, of a region and sometimes neighboring villages are different.

    Although dance is an elusive category that varies in space and time, we may always say that it reflects the spirit and mentality of the people of the certain region, the character of the people, its life and way of living and thinking.

Woven from threads made of creations of numerous anonymous authors, of the extreme inventive, spiritual force, of intellectual power and natural talent, Serbian traditional art carries the aureole of high artistic quality, which reach our modern times.

    Goal of the choreographers, directors and instructors of Folk Ensembles and groups is simple and complicate in same time.

    Their goal is to unite the essential values of Serbian traditional culture; values that are brought to our times and the creative innovations which are in harmony with essence of folk dance, song and music.

The spirit of Serbian people, its life, customs and habits, the soul of the human being, have to speak and irradiate from dancers, singers and musicians, and program of the Folk ensembles have to make a necessary connection between the essence of the folk-art and our times and sensibility of the young generations.

Thus, by introducing the program of our ensembles to the audience, we are not introducing ourselves, we introduce whole Serbia, Crna Gora and the Serbian people everywhere.