Thousands of Latvians and members of its diaspora from around the world travelled to Toronto this weekend to celebrate the history and culture of this small country on the shores of the Baltic Sea, including its resistance against oppressors.
The 16th edition of the Latvian Festival of Song and Dance in Canada was about much more than precision dancing, choral singing and tautas terps – ornate woven outfits.
Toward the end of a three-hour grand finale, featuring more than 1,000 folk dancers and singers, all the performers flanked the stage, crossing their arms in front of themselves and then joining hands with each other.
Without being told, the entire audience stood and did the same. Everyone slowly began to sway as the words of Daugav abas malas (Both Sides of the Daugava River) softly filled the auditorium.
The patriotic choral song, composed during the First World War, is about Latvians not being divided.
“It invokes that we want our own land and our own nation,” said Maruta Freimuts, an audience member whose parents fled Latvia during the Soviet occupation of the country. “We wanted our country back. We did not want to be occupied.”
The song’s fervence – and its message of unity, protest and mourning – is especially significant these days as Latvia’s neighbour, Ukraine, defends itself from Russian incursion. Latvia’s President, Edgars Rinkevics, travelled to Toronto for the festival.
Much of Latvia’s history – and its unique pagan culture – was destroyed during a 100-year period in which Russians and Germans occupied, and reoccupied, the country.
When viewed from above, the hundreds of dancers in Toronto created formations that evoked pagan symbols, such as the sun, which represents home and luck.
To those who took part, it felt like this edition of the festival was blessed by good luck.
“We planned this during lockdown and didn’t know if we would be able to get together and perform,” said Selga Apse, a choreographer.
The dancers “embody the things and history we lost,” she said. “For Latvians, dance is part of our core being.”
