Every spring, singing and dancing groups of the Jewish Community Center Rimon participate in the Almaty city festival-contest "Rauan". This year we started getting ready well before the festival. Irina Fokina, our new choreograph, designed a really spring-like, bright dance that combined all colors of blooming Israel. New dance needed new costumes. Artisit Lilya Golubovskaya got involved in the work. She designed the costumes. But how could one person make all costumes and meet the deadline. Our Parents’ Committee offered its help - Yulia Lushova and Natalya Trohimchuk were working tirelessly. The costumes were made within very a short time! Finally we were ready to go to the event venue, the Palace of Schoolchildren.
The choreographic contest went quite easy. Our children performed well and we were very proud of them. The singing contest was delayed. When it finally started, the jury surprised us. When our children sang the first song "Karlagash" the jury requested to repeat it from the middle and sing it a cappella. Our children did what they were asked to and sang very well, but… the jury, after a long discussion, gave not very good marks. It caused indignation of the audience and our teacher Lyudmila Samsonova.
The second song was "Potpourri - Yiddish". When Natasha Tresvyatskaya was singing solo, the microphone switched off. The girl did not stop and continued singing. She was moving to the edge of the scene hoping that the audience could hear her better this way. Then everybody realized that their microphones did not work. Only Nastya Ezhova’s microphone worked. She ran through the stage to give it to Natasha Trsvyatskaya. They sang the song together using one microphone. We were watching our children as hypnotized and were almost crying. We realized how they grew up, became courageous and good friends to each other. We would like to believe that we can also take a credit for that.
The sing was sung to the end. For several seconds the audience was keeping silence. Then the jury announced the mark -10 scores! Such a high mark was not given to any other contest participants. Our ensemble "Anahnukan" won the contest!
On behalf of the Jewish community, we congratulate our children with this remarkable victory. You have deserved this First Prize! We thank Lyudmila Samsonova for her creative approach, for innovations, and the constant strive for being perfect. We are sure you have many more victories ahead.