Folk Dance Festival, Šokiu Švente, was held in Los Angeles, CA July 6, 2008.
Every four years the Lithuanians in America hold a Folk Dance Festival, Šokiu Švente, in which thousands of Lithuanian dancers from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Argentina, West Germany, Pol
and and Lithuania have participated.
Žaibas was originally founded to dance at the 1992 Šokiu Švente and has danced at every one since then.
This wonderful event was held this year, on July 6 in Los Angeles. Žaibas again wias participating. Information about the event is available in both Lithuanian and English at www.sokiusvente.com
Pictures from Šokiu Švente 2008 Los Angeles, CA Album1 and Album2
“Posters of Soviet Occupied Lithuania 1940-1990” exhibit at Madison Central library ended. MVSC organized exhibition was great success. Exhibit was well attended by madisonians and city quests.
MVSC 2008 Annual banquet
Our annual meeting and banquet was held in the Main Lounge of the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union. You can see pictures from the Banquet and pictures from the day after.
We were honored to have Draugas editor-in-chief Dr. Dalia Cidzikaite as this year's speaker. She spoke about the image of minorities in Lithuanian culture.
More information about Dalia is available here.
We appreciate our guests for participation and support of the Madison-Vilnius Sister Cities. Pictures along with detailed description will be uploaded shortly.
Dr. Dalios Cidzikaites straipsnis apie MVSC 2008 banketa galite paskaityti "Dauge"
Dr. Dalios Cidzikaites straipsnio kopija apie MVSC 2008 banketa "Dauge" "Word" formate.
Žaibas performed at Mini-Šokiu Švente in
Chicago Saturday June 14.
In anticipation of the Lithuanian Dance Festival (Šokiu Švente) in
Los Angeles in July, Žaibas Lithuanian Dancers of Madison participated in a Mini-Švente in the
Chicago area. The concert took place at Lithuanian World Center (Pasaulio Lietuvių Centras)
14911 127th Street – Lemont. Nijole E. introduced Žaibas to the public and Žaibas performed four dances. Žaibas performance was met with ovations by the filled concert hall. Picture Album from Mini Šokiu Švente.
From our friends in
Chicago area:
St. John's (Midsummer’s eve) celebration June 22, 2008; from 12 to 9 p.m. In Willowbrook, Ill. Featured will be renowned folklore singer Veronika Povilioniene. See poster.
Kvieciame i Jonines birzelio 22 d. nuo 12 iki 21 val. Chicago'je -Willowbrook, Ill.. Jos siemet vyks su Lietuvos folkloro zvaigzde, musu visu mylima dainininke Veronika Povilioniene. Atvykite, padainuokite, pasokite, pasivaisinkite... – pabukime kartu.
Betty Zeps, is stepping down. 
Sadly, we recently learned that our newsletter editor, Betty Zeps, is stepping down from the position she has held for years.
We can't thank her enough for the time and effort she has put in to keeping our membership in touch and informed via The Lithuanian Connection newsletter. We'll miss Betty's dedication as an MVSC board member but sincerely hope to continue our friendship.
We on the board are brainstorming for ways to continue the
publication, but there may be changes coming in the future. As always, please check this website often for updated information on events and projects. If there are volunteers out there to
edit a quarterly newsletter or to volunteer in any capacity, we would love to hear from you! Our strong membership is what allows MVSC to prosper and grow.
April 26, 2008 Žaibas performed at "Celebrate Madison".
This year event event took place at the MATC central campus.
MVSC celebrated "Vasario 16ta" (February 16th) -
Lithuanian Independence Day
by dancing with Žaibas at the annual Madison International Festival, held this year on Feb. 16.
Telling the audience that this was Lithuania's "Fourth of July", Žaibas presented a program of 5 dances, and then invited the audience onto the floor to learn 2 of them. Their offer was accepted by a large and enthusiastic crowd of adults and children. Later in the day, Žaibas dancers Debbie Kmetz and Dan Garvin sang a Lithuanian song as part of their performance with the singing trio Tri Bratovchedki. They also told their audience that they were celebrating Lithuanian Independence Day. This news was met with a rousing ovation. Greg Lasky of Vesper, WI also represented Lithuania in the marketplace, offering a wide variety of Lithuanian art and craft items. See a video of "Žaibas" dancing "Vakaruškos".
"English Books for
Vilnius Libraries" project was so successful last couple years that we continuously collecting English books for further shipment to
Lithuania.
In 2007 books where donated
books to Vilnius Antakalnio
library.
We received Thank you
letter from Antakalnio
Library director
Raima Burbiene
(in the picture).
In 2007 books where donated to Karoliniškiu library.
In 2006 books where donated to Kalvariju library.
We thank all MVSC friends who donated books.
If you have books you would like to donate please contact any of the MVSC board members.
Madison-Vilnius Sister Cities & "Žaibas" Lithuanian Dancers celebrated Lithuanian Christmas Eve last December at The Lutheran Church of the Living Christ.
Four delegates from Lithuania attended World Dairy Expo in Madison October 1-6, 2007.
More about this event you can read in there and see in the pictures.
Also a couple articles in Lithuanian newspapers published in Chicago appeared recently. Article in “Draugas” called "Lietuvos atstovai apsilanke pasaulineje parodoje” by Stase E. Semeniene and article in “Amerikos Lietuvis” by Gediminas Vidugiris called “Madison Vilnius Sister Cities kvietimu Lietuvos Zemes ukio specialistai dalyvavo Word Dairy Expo 2007 Madison'e”.
MVSC was featured in a couple of Lithuanian newspapers here in the United States: "Amerikos Lietuvis" and "Draugas". "Draugas" published article (in Lithuanian) you can read in there. "Draugo" spausdinta straipsni apie MVSC banketa ir musu svecio Prof. Giedriaus Subaciaus kalba galite perskaityti cia.
"Žaibas" Lithuanian Dancers of Madison will be participating in the XIII Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival - "Sokiu Svente", to be held in Los Angeles on July 6, 2008.
If you would like to dance with us at this exciting event and are able to practice Sundays at 6, please contact Nijole at 608-356-6549, or at netz@g2a.net
"Žaibas" Lithuanian Dancers Annual Picnic was a blast. Many "Žaibas" dancers, friends, and family members of the group attended the annual picnic at Ochsner Park, Baraboo, They enjoyed the beautiful weather, the company, and the potluck spread. If you missed it this year, plan for a wonderful day next September.
"Žaibas" Lithuanian Dancers participated at Celebrate Madison 2007, April 14, at Monona Terrace in Madison.
