Večernica delighted international folkdancers in the Bay Area for well over 20 years. With our experienced musicians and broad repertoire, we provided music from a variety of cultures.
Among the countries and regions represented in our repertoire were Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Austria, Eastern Europe and the Balkans (including Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia and Serbia), Turkey and Israel, along with tunes from Canada, Mexico, South America, and the U.S.
We played regularly for several folk-dance clubs and classes in the San Francisco Bay Area, and for dance parties, weddings, Bar Mitzvas and other occasions.
Who we were
- Dave Bogdanoff (leader; bass, guitar, percussion, vocals),
- Pete Showman (fiddle, mandolin, vocals),
- Ned Gault (autoharp, Austrian harmonika (button accordion), vocals, percussion),
- Gary Breitbard (accordion, fiddle, vocals),
- Jena Rauti (vocals, accordion, percussion),
- Dave Barton (fiddle),
- Cindy Anderson (clarinet).
Where to Hear Us
Sorry, as of 2018 we are no longer active.
Groups We’ve Played For in Recent Years
- Berkeley Folk Dancers, Berkeley
- Chang’s International Folk Dancers, San Francisco (including their 70th and 75th anniversary parties)
- City College of San Francisco: Gail Barton’s Folk and Ballroom Dance Concert
- Heritage Festival Folk Dance Party (usually held in January)
- Loui Tucker’s international folk dance class in Saratoga
- Marcel Vinokur’s Saturday night folk dance parties in Menlo Park
- The Peninsula Folk Dance Council’s monthly party at St. Bede’s church, Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park
- San Francisco Free Folk Festival (Saturday evening folk dance).
- Stanford International Dancers, Mountain View
- Statewide Gold Country Festival (California Folk Dance Federation)
- Swedish Lodge, Los Altos, CA
- Triton Museum, Santa Clara (special events)
- Various private parties, anniversaries, weddings in the Bay Area
Contact Information
* Večernica?
What’s that?
Večernica means “Evening Star” in Serbo-Croation.
It’s pronounced something like “veh-CHAIR-neet-sah.”
(In Serbo-Croation, the character č (c-hachek or c-caron,
which should look like this in your browser:
)
is pronounced like English “ch” or “tch”,
while a plain “c” is pronounced like English “ts” or “tz”.)