Atanas Kolarovski

Atanas Kolarovski (1926-2022) was born in Dračevo (near Skopje), Macedonia, of a family of expert dancers and musicians. From his early youth, Atanas had the opportunity to observe and participate in the dances of Serbians, Albanians, and Gypsies who live in the Skopje area. He performed with the amateur group, Koko Racin. After World War II, he danced for two years with the Yugoslavian Army Ensemble. With the ensemble he was able to travel all over Yugoslavia, studying and learning regional dances and dance styles of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and the two atonomies, Banat and Kosmet, whose cultures are completely different from the other six republics. He was asked to help form Tanec, the Macedonian State Folk Ensemble, where he remained for 19 years as artistic director, choreographer, and lead solo dancer, traveling the world for 16 of those years. Atanas became a famed researcher, choreographer, consultant, and program director for many performing ensembles, such as Koko Racin, The Army Ensemble, Tanec, Ensemble Karpuc Pionerski, Blagoj Sosolcef, and Vlado Tasievski. Atanas Kolarovski Atanas Kolarovski on a button He has researched and collected dances and folk music from the different areas of southern Yugoslavia, including Macedonia, south Serbia, and Shiptar-Albania. In 1964, Atanas made his first teaching tour of the United States, Belgium, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, awakening interest in Macedonian dance and music around the country and becoming known as "the man with the golden legs." After the second tour, he was reviewed as "the untiring teacher, researcher, chroeographer, consultant . . . a leading ambassador of Macedonia." Since then, besides having taught at all major folk dance camps throughout north America, he has also taught extensively in Europe and east Asia. A great musician, Atanas plays the accordion, the tupan, the kaval, the zurla, and drums. Since the 1970s, he, along with his wife, Ljupka (who was also a lead dancer with Tanec), and daughter has made his home in Seattle, Washington, where, for a while, he operated a successful ethnic restaurant, "Yugoslavia," featuring old-country style cuisine. He still tries to return to his home in Macedonia yearly and still organizes and conducts tours to his native country. Atanas has taught Macedonian and Serbian dances in Bangkok, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the United States. [Source: Phantom Ranch] Further info at "The Life and Art of Atanas Kolarovski, master performer and teacher of Macedonian folk dance - Michael Seraphinoff" on http://www.makedonika.org/whatsnew.html