Our group

KARJALA

Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia

The name of our group is Karjala, which means Karelia, the name of our region. Karelia is situated in the northwest of the Russian Federation and borders on Finland. The native population of the Republic of Karelia is the Karelians and Veps, Finno-Ugric peoples by origin.

There are 20 people in Karjala at the moment, the youngest person is 16. We dance old Karelian, Vepsian and Finnish folk dances. The Karelians and Veps, the native peoples of our republic, have been living side by side with the Russians for several centuries but they have managed to develop their own culture and native languages. Now we are trying to preserve and revive this culture. We dance to live music, sing traditional songs in the Karelian language (the three existing dialects), play traditional instruments, and perform local games.

The Karjala group was founded in 1961 and has a rich history. The dancers and musicians representing several generations have participated in many festivals, concerts and folk-culture conferences in Russia and other countries. For example, Karjala took part in

Old and Modern time conference, Tallinn, Estonia, 1979

Friendship Festival, Finland, 1981

Sister-City Festival, Neubrandenburg, Germany, 1983

Regional Folk Festival, Murmansk, Russia, 1984

The First Finno-Ugric Festival in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, 1984

The 12^th International Festival of youth, Moscow, Russia, 1985

Sister-City Festival, Neubrandenburg, Germany, 1987

The USSR Folk Festival, Moscow, 1987 (laureate)

Concerts organized by Turun Kansantansin Ystävät R.Y. Organisation, Turku, Finland, 1988

Folk Festival «PISPALAN SOTTISI», Tampere, Finland, 1988

Folk Days in Joensuu, Finland, 1988

International Friendship Festival, Odessa, Ukraine, 1989

 Festival, Austria, 1989

Russian Dance Festival, Tver, Russia, 1990 (diploma for the revival of folk traditions)

International Music Festival «Sepän soitto» in Mäntsälä, Finland, 1990

The USSR Folk Festival, Moscow, 1991 (laureate)

The Finno-Ugric Folk Dance Festival in Izhevsk, Russia, 1990

The Group Karjala is awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Union of Ministers of the Republic of Karelia, 1991

Sydäkkylä village Festival «Jutaamme kotikyliin», Sodänkylä, Finland, 1991

International Folk Dance Festival «Rättviks dansen», Stockholm, Sweden, 1992

International Folk Dance Festival, Kaliningrad, Russia, 1993

International Folk Dance Festival «Spelit», Teuvo, Finland, 1995

Vepsian Folk Festival “Tree of Life”, Saint-Petrsburg region, 1996

Russian Folk Dance Competition, Novgorod, Russia, 1998 (laureate)

International Folk  Festival, Tchebokssary, Russia, 1999

International Folklore and Handicrafts Day, Novgorod, Russia, 2000

International Folk and Classical Music Festival, Belozersk, Russia, 2000

The Group Karjala is awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Union of Ministers of the Republic of Karelia, 2001

Industrial Exposition «Kainun messut», Finland, 2002

Traditional Finno-Ugric Festival, Kostomuksha, Russia, 2002

Train of Culture Project, Russia-Finland, Petrozavodsk, Belomorsk, Kostomuksha, Vartius, Kajaani, Oulu, Utajarvi, Vaala, Nurmes, Joensuu, Sortavala, Suojarvi, 2003

Folk Festival “Kanteletar”, Kostomuksha, Russia, 2004

Independence Day of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia, 2004

International Folk  Festival «Hiukka Music», Sotkamo, Finland, 2004

Arts Festival, Moscow, Russia, 2006

Festival «Ugri Juhla», Imatra, Finland, 2008

Finno-Ugric Festival, Narva, Tallinn, Estonia, 2008

Midsummer celebrations, Avesta, Horndal, Dalarna, Sweden, 2009

Tartu traditional dance festival, Tartu, Estonia, 2009

XXII Zemplen International Folk Dance Festival, Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary, 2010

IV International Folk Contest „Saulės žiedas“ (The "Flower of the Sun"), Šiauliai, Lithuania, 2011 - 1st PRIZE WINNERS

XVII International Võru Folk Festival `UMA EHE`,Võru, Estonia, 2011

The peculiarity of our group is that we are really interested in visiting small villages, dancing in picturesque places and playing folk-games with people. We are a group of friends who like being together, traveling, singing, dancing, talking, smiling and enjoying the beauty of the world. We are students and people of different professions. We represent different nationalities by origin, Veps, Karelians, Russians, Belorussians. We like our city, in which there are many universities, as many students come here from various parts of Karelia. 

We would like to share our culture with other people and we find it interesting to learn more about other peoples’ traditions.    =0)