Klimczewska’s Choreography Makes Poland Proud
By JOHN CZOP
The 2019 book by John Meacham and Tim McGraw, Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation, shows how music and dance simultaneously expressed and created America’s values from 1776 to the present. Music and dance are playing a similar role in today’s Poland which is showing leadership in a dangerous political context marked by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Since Poland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1999, our ancestral country has moved into a new epoch. Moreover, the very recent decision to reactivate the Weimar Triangle, a 1991 alliance of France, Germany, and Poland, established in the city of Weimar, shows the increasing importance of Poland in ensuring collective security in Europe. Violetta Klimczewska expresses through choreography Poland’s increasingly important political and military role in Europe. In this way she makes concrete and accessible to the public important political changes
Born in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Violetta studied ballet at Poland’s National Academy of Dance. Her first professional performances were at the National Theatre in Warsaw. She has performed at Lincoln Center and in Broadway shows. Violetta is famous for her powerful stage presence. She is now engaged in teaching and choreography.
The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America (PIASA), located in a town house in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City, recently relaunched its series of evening meetings with artists, writers, and performers. The first of these events, An Evening with Violetta Klimczewska, took place on March 14, 2024. Mr. Mariusz Bargielski was the host.
At the PIASA event, Violetta said that she wanted to do something for Poland and NATO. Her home in Bydgoszcz is near a Polish Army base. Her father served in the Polish Army. Many criticized the Polish Army Marching Band of Bydgoszcz’s parade drill as lackluster. Violetta wanted to change this and she succeeded by preparing new choreography for new music for the Polish Army Marching Band of Bydgoszcz whose performance in Vilnius received high praise.
Violetta is an exemplar: she used her talents to promote Poland as a NATO ally and in this way shows that America and Poland are partners in freedom.
This is the first of several articles about Violetta’s achievements as we observe the 75th anniversary of the April 1949 Washington Treaty which established NATO.
PHOTO: Violetta Klimczewska at the 2023 NATO Military Tattoo Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the Polish Army Marching Band of Bydgoszcz
