We are dancers of the Polish Song and Dance Ensemble “Lajkonik” of Sydney. Our dance teacher Urszula Lang established Lajkonik 35 years ago. She has taught continuously during this whole period and now wishes to retire!

Our Ensemble needs to find new teachers to continue the development of our Ensemble, but there are no courses in Australia for us to seek qualifications in the specialist area of Polish Folk Dance.

We are all dedicated and experienced dancers who have danced since we were little children, but to become teachers, we need Instructor training. There are no such courses in Australia. There is a wonderful training course in Krakow, Poland (Krakow School of Arts) which trains dancers/aspiring teachers like us. However, we will need to travel to Poland 4 times to attend intensive training sessions over a two-year period.

The first session is from 18th to 24th January 2025 followed by 5 sessions over two years. As some of the sessions are combined, 4 trips to Poland would be required.

We are asking for help to send 4 of us, to the first session in January 2025, as the next intake for the course will not be until 2027.

Our achievement of instructor qualifications will help to develop Lajkonik's teacher base. It will help us to build on the legacy created by our existing teacher over 35 years and ensure that the next generation will continue to know Polish culture in Australia. It will also help polish schools in Sydney which do not have any folk dance teachers.

Our teacher will need to travel with us to help us with the first session. After that, we will be doing lots of concerts and fundraising throughout 2025 to raise funds for our further trips to undertake Sessions 2-6 of the course.

We will be extremely grateful for your donations to help us achieve this special goal and we promise to give back to the community through our teaching of others once we become qualified. We know this is the best way to keep Polish culture alive in Australia.