About dance, costumes and project management

CANCOM Slovakia: Nika, try to tell us something about yourself?

Hi! (loud laughter….) My name is Nika, I work at CANCOM as PMO and in my free time I am active in folklore, because I dance in the Hornád folklore ensemble, and I run a costume rental shop. I have been dancing since I was 4 years old and last year, I celebrated my 20th anniversary in Hornád. So, I am one of the oldest members. I would also like to mention embroidery and collecting old costumes. Of course, there is also my family, I have a 4-year-old son, I play badminton, fold LEGO and bake.

CANCOM Slovakia: How did you get into folklore?

My cousin used to dance in an ensemble and as a little girl I saw her dancing in the Amphitheatre when there were still big folklore festivals in Košice and I told my parents that this is what I wanted to do and they signed me up for a children’s folklore ensemble. I tried other things like karate and basketball, but folklore and dance completely absorbed me.

CANCOM Slovakia: Karate?

(Loud laughter….) I did karate for about three years. I had an older brother that I went to karate with, and my parents wanted us to get our energy out. It was just a place where we dealt with domestic tensions.

CANCOM Slovakia: How did you get into the IT world?

I went to a technical university in the faculty of economics, and I took a course related to project management. Unfortunately, it only lasted one semester, but even so my future direction was clearly defined.

CANCOM Slovakia: All right, and now I’m going to ask you a burning question. What do you prefer? Dancing? Or working around in costumes?

I prefer dancing. I got into costumes so unplanned. When I was pregnant with my offspring, I couldn’t dance, and I was looking for an excuse to be part of the ensemble because the ensemble is really like family to me. So, I started to sort of dabble in those costumes…

CANCOM Slovakia: What makes your costumes special?

In our ensemble, we really make sure that our costumes are as they should be. We just want to get as close to history as possible through the materials and patterns. Nowadays it’s already a problem because it’s very hard to find these fabrics. Something can be made, and something has to be adapted a little bit.

CANCOM Slovakia: You mentioned that you also collect costumes. Which is your most precious piece?

Well, my top one is a gift from my mother-in-law, who gave me their family lajblik (women’s vest), which was sewn and embroidered by her grandfather, who was a tailor in Ťahanovce, and it’s a historic piece.

Unfortunately, nowadays old costumes are burned…so I am very happy if someone brings me an interesting piece…and my heart breaks at the thought of a burning costume.

CANCOM Slovakia: Why do you think folklore is important? We work in an IT world that doesn’t look back very much.

I believe in the phrase…he or she who doesn’t know where he or she is coming from, doesn’t know where to go, and for me this is very important. I really like to think about the past and think about how old people were able to work…how they danced for example. That’s why our choreographies try to imitate as much as possible how people used to dance…
I just can’t imagine someone after a hard day’s work in the fields going out to dance… and that’s somehow how we approach dance too… we try to breathe life into our past through dance. Without the past, I don’t think we would be able to move forward. After all, even all new technologies are created based on some knowledge of what we already know. On top of that, new and new ideas and improvements are being loaded, and that is how we simplify our lives.Neviem si jednoducho predstaviť niekoho po ťažkej práci na poli ako si ide zatancovať… a takto nejako pristupujeme aj mi k tancu…snažíme sa prostredníctvom tanca vdýchnuť našej minulosti život. Myslím si, že bez minulosti by sme sa nevedeli hýbať vpred. Veď aj všetky nové technológie vznikajú na základe nejakých poznatkov z toho, čo už vieme. Na to sa nabaľujú nové a nové nápady, vylepšenia, a práve tým si zjednodušujeme si život.

CANCOM Slovakia: Do you also have a favorite dance?

Yes, I do, and it’s from the village of Pozdišovce. It’s one of the oldest dances we do and it’s very dynamic. Among folklorists we call it the king of the czardas and there is very good old video footage of it from 1951. It’s from Zemplín and it’s very lively and cheerful and I like it very much. You can have a good laugh at it.

CANCOM Slovakia: What has folklore given you in your life?

Folklore has given me a lot. It’s my second family because folklore raised me. And from a working life? Time management. Because dedicating yourself to dancing and costume is quite demanding. And since the PMO is mainly about organization and management, it had an influence on that direction. Also functioning in a team, I learned responsibility, planning, improvising, controlling my emotions (still working on that :D) and working with costumes and working with customers.