Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra

The chairman of the expert jury and at the same time the general director of the Slovak Folk Art Collective (SĽUK) Juraj Hamar assessed that the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra prepared the event at a high level.

The academic folklore festival has been opening the door to traditional art for 45 years and has its own specifics. It proves to the young generation that culture and traditions have a place in our lives. Mr. Hamar notes that our university is fully aware that art is an extremely important phenomenon in terms of personality formation. "I was very pleasantly surprised by the level and high standard of the festival that the university prepared. Just like the judges, artists and visitors also perceived it. We agree that Academic Nitra, as the only event of its kind in Europe, unites young people, preserves traditional cultural values, and therefore has a future," said Juraj Hamar.

According to him, the artistic level of the eleven non-professional competing ensembles was also high. The judges evaluated the performances of the ensembles and their works presented on the stage of the Andrej Bagar Theatre. "With folklore on stage, music, singing, dancing and costumes cannot be separated from the overall dramaturgy, choreography or direction. There is a great deal of artistry that goes into it. Dancers, singers and musicians gave a great performance, the individual talents that we appreciated also stood out," said the chief judge. At the same time, he reminded that the performances of contemporary ensembles are no longer limited to demonstrations of folk music or dances, but strive to move folklore to theatrical art. This is a natural development of folklore, which must be respected. "Artists try to introduce new elements, to create dance theatre with projection and recordings. Technically and artistically, it is very demanding. However, it is important because they can attract a young viewer who does not have a personal relation to folklore," stated J. Hamar.

In this direction too, Academic Nitra was extremely beneficial. It offered methodological evaluation seminars and professional meetings to experts and competing ensembles. "Today, there are not many platforms that offer such an opportunity to discuss each other and directly analyze the performances. It was highly appreciated by all of us. We agreed that in the future we need to look for other new forms of interaction between experts, professional educators and artists," concluded J. Hamar.

Doc. Mgr. Juraj Hamar, CSc.

He worked in international academic folklore festivals as a dancer, later choreographer, author of gala programs and expert judge. Currently, he is the general director of SĽUK and the head of the Department of Aesthetics of the Comenius University in Bratislava. He is the author of many book publications and professional works, he is also devoted to the creation of television and theatre scripts.