Time flies ... the story of our group

Our story began in winter 1964. The proposal to establish a sorbian dancegroup in the little village Schmerlitz, was decided unanimously at the meeting of the Domowina, federation of lusation Sorbs. It was the goal to found a dancegroup to foster the sorbian culture in Schmerlitz. The new-builded cultural centre in the middle of the village had to be used for the regular training. Mikławš Kostorž took over the art direction of the young group.
	Every beginning is hard, that's why it was difficult to develop a well working dancing group. Above all, the first dancers came from Schmerlitz, but soon there were also young dancers coming from the neighbour villages and towns Bautzen and Kamenz. For the weekly practicing they met on Saturday evenings, like we still do today.

The first performances took place in the village under the audience of the inhabitants and in the neighbour villages. Joint adventures and visiting theatre performances of the german-sorbian theatre in Bautzen / Budyšin helped to develop the friendships inside the group.

There was always Mikławš Kostorž with them, who prepared the dancers with effort and dance pedagogical skills for new performances. He was the instructor from 1964 to the beginning of the nineties.

The Group was really very young. The oldest dancer was only 18 years old, the youngest was in the age of thirteen. The majority of the members were pupils of the 9th and 10th grade. Together they performed upper und lower Sorbian dances and also slavic dances of the neighbour countries: the dance „Tuka“ in the costumes of the village Schleife (Upper Sorbians), the dance „Krakowiak“ in beautiful polish traditional costumes and the „Wittichenauer Suite“ dressed in the costumes of the catholic Sorbians.

The number of the dancers got higher, so that it was necessary to split the group into two adult groups and one children group to guarentee a perpetual development and a good quality of the group.

Year after year the number of performances increased aswell. More and more often there were also German organizers who asked for appeareances.

Mikławš Kostorž died in July 1995, with the age of 63. His early death evoked a deep mourning. Mainly he takes credit for his high quality, dances and programmes.

Transitionaly there was Fero Knižka, former assistent in the Sorbian National Theatren Nationalensembles, who practiced with the group. Since 1993 Dieter Wendisch has the responsability as the art director. 

Today the Sorbian Dancegroup Schmerlitz counts 72 members.