Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Sometimes in life you do things just so you can be around certain people. Perhaps they inspire you, or are fun, or have great energy and you just enjoy their company. That is exactly the reason that I work on the DH3 (Dance Happens Here, Haliburton) committee.
Jim Blake, Amy Brohm, Barb Fraser and Maryssa Danilko are wonderful people to spend time with, dreaming up creative events that we want to bring to our county. Maryssa is the newest and youngest member of our committee and she is a force of good energy. I just love her.
She was born in Toronto, went to school there and graduated with a degree in environmental studies and a masters in education. She is Ukrainian and grew up surrounded by music and dance and low and behold was performing in Toronto one evening, with her dance troupe “Desna,” when she met a logger from Haliburton and fell in love. Maryssa gave up her city life and moved to Haliburton County where she and her husband, Alex Danilko, now live and are raising their three young children.
Maryssa loves her life here and now cuts and splits wood for a living. She has never forgotten her love of music and dance though. So in her very little free time (three young kids!) she volunteers on our DH3 committee to bring events to our county. Maryssa helped to bring the Ukrainian dancers to Haliburton a couple of years ago to perform in the Nutcracker, and she was the inspiration behind the Kolomeyka event that our committee ran and loved.
Now Maryssa is the driving force behind our committee bringing the Lemon Bucket Orkestra (LBO) to the Haliburton Legion on Saturday Feb 8. LBO is is a “guerilla-punk-balkan-folk-brass band massive” like no other. They travel around the world performing and because of Maryssa we will get to see them in Haliburton. Maryssa knows the group from her days of being very involved in the music and dance scene in Toronto. She loves the joy, the enthusiasm and the energy of this group.
There will be 13 people performing and their intention is to have fun and create an event where people feel happy, welcome and joyful! They play Eastern European music with their own punk, jazz, gypsy twist. How cool is that?! You are welcome to come and listen or dance if you feel so inclined.
There will be a free dance workshop with one of the band members, Stephanie Woloshyn, that will help you get ready for the show. It will happen at 6 p.m. on the evening of the show. What I love about this story is that it reminds me that anything is possible in our county. Someone comes up with a good idea, gets some help and voila: a fun time is had by all who attend. Everyone who comes to this event will leave feeling very, very good. I hope to see you there! Tickets are available at The Source, Haliburton or online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4450056.