MANAGEMENT

DA "AUSTRIS" artistic director

ELITA TREILONE

Elita joined "Austris" in 1997, taking over as head of the dance group from longtime group leader Janis Upitis. Until then, Elita actively danced in the Folk Dance ensemble “Līgo” and worked as a teacher-coach in the Folk Dance ensemble “Ačkups” for which today she is also artistic director. She is currently performing both directorial and teacher-coach duties in "Austris", thus ensuring a full process of top-quality preparation before dancers step on stage to show their skills. Elita can turn almost anyone into a dancer, as long as the interest is also from the dancer himself. She inspires with her love for the Latvian folk dance and her ability to perfectly show any dance step that the dancers themselves can't always do.

DA "AUSTRIS" repetiteur

RŪDOLFS CĪRULIS

Rudolfs joined the Austris family as a dancer in 2011, starting studies in the architecture programme of the Riga Building College. 13 years in the ensemble were spent on stage, while acquiring theoretical knowledge of Latvian folk stage dance and choreography, but from 2024 Rudolfs continued his activities in the ensemble as a repetiteur. With his input, Rudolfs not only provides the preparedness of the dancers, both at concerts and on stage, drowning each dancer's movement to its final nuance, but also dotted and enriched the Austris dance repertoire with his creative dances.

DA "AUSTRIS" principal accompanist

VERA VOLKOLAKOVA

Vera, or Veriņa, as she's already fondly used to being called dancers, joined Austris in 1998 and has been an integral part of the collective ever since. Not only does the principal accompanist cope excellently with the music of the folk dance repertoire, providing quality preparation for concerts and shows, but she also delights the dancers in training hours. Dancers have particularly loved Verina piano for longer stretch pauses as she brilliantly selects some well-known songs for everyone, with everyone providing a flight of thoughts.