RUSSIAN singers and dancers from St George and Sutherland Shire will be taking their culture to Darling Harbour on Sunday, March 2, for the Maslenitsa Sydney Slavic Festival.
The Russian choir Kalinka will open the festival concert with some traditional songs from Slavic folklore and Sergey and Anna Yazovsky will perform a Russian dance.
Kalinka, which rehearses on Mondays at the Sutherland Pensioners Centre, is made up of women of different ages, backgrounds and from different parts of Russia and other former Soviet countries.
Spokeswoman Elena Skorokhodova said the choir's repertoire was constantly expanding, with songs from different times, authors and nationalities, but based on the the inexhaustible source of Russian and Slavic folklore.
"We are trying to promote Russian culture to the wider community, return cultural traditions for our children, develop multicultural harmony and bring keepers of folk traditions together to enrich all the community," she said.
Ms Skorokhodova said the Maslenitsa festival — also known as Butter Week or Pancake Week — was an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday.
"It is celebrated during the last week before Lent — that is, 40 days before the Eastern Orthodox Easter. There will be Russian music, dancing and singing, clowns, children's artwork, pancakes and more."
