High school seniors perform the traditional May quadrille

Street dancers greeted by sun this year

21. maj 2016 ob 7.03 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

Slovenska Street teemed with high school seniors. Foto: BoBo

When the clock stroke noon on Friday, several ten thousand high school students started performing the traditional street quadrille dance to the sound of music by Strauss. The event took place in over 20 Slovenian towns as well as a few places abroad.

Urška Pro Dance School and the Dance Association of Slovenia have being organizing the Seniors' Parade for 16 years now. MMC joined high school seniors on Slovenska Street in central Ljubljana, where the event took place. The students were greeted by President of Slovenia Borut Pahor and Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković.

"Dear seniors, have a great time dancing on the Slovenska Street, which is free for everyone. Today is your day, enjoy it and good luck with matura final exams," said Mayor Janković, jabbing at the organizer's demand that those who did not take dancing lessons in their school should may 40 euros to participate in the quadrille or have their own dancing schools cover this expense.

The students were allegedly mislead by other dance schools that their dance lessons would enable them to participate in the Seniors' Parade and had not checked with the organizers if this would be possible. As a response to this, students from the Design and Photography Secondary School in Ljubljana decided to ask Mayor Janković for help.

The crowd was also greeted by President Pahor, who has a special connection with the Seniors' Parade this year. "May I tell you something important? Listen well – I now greet you as a president and a father of one among you. In the name of all parents, I would like to tell you to how very proud and happy we are because of you. You'll have dreams in your life. When someone tells you they're not real, you have to go on and ignore such piece of advice. Good luck!"

High school seniors dancing in Slovenia and abroad
The biggest two venues were Ljubljana and Maribor, but a number of other towns and cities joined in the fun. To name just a few: Kranj, Nova Gorica, Portorož, Novo mesto and Murska Sobota. Slovenian high schoolers were joined by their colleagues from Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia.

"It's great! We're happy that we've made it through the four years of secondary school, although we still need to pass the matura final exams," a student told to MMC. "The weather was on our side, too, which is why today is even more special," added another.