Dance
forming. Everyone has an equal share.”
Families also share the expenses
needed to operate. They must pay the
choreographer, the rent for the space
(classes run from September through June
but payments must be made year-round),
costumes, travel and more.
It can be expensive for parents, especially
when they have more than one child in the
program. The parents meet three times
throughout the season to discuss trips and
expenses and to make decisions about
whether they can afford to take certain trips.
Indina Cobovic, a Middle Village resident,
brings her 13-year-old daughter Melinda
to Kud Halaturko. Her daughter began
attending classes 4 ½ years ago because
she has a passion for dancing.
Cobovic said parents would use addi-tional
money to reward students for their
hard work.
“Just for doing little things for the kids,
maybe a little party here and there,” she
said. “They practice for about three hours
on Friday and three on Saturday so we
want to just tell them, ‘thank you for your
hard work.’”
Murataj has loftier goals. She would like
the choreographer and students to have
more freedom in terms of how they can use
their rehearsal space, upgrades to equip-ment
such as a microphone instead of a
whistle to help disciple students and clothes.
“It would be nice to have our own place
and it would be nice to not worry if we
can go on a field trip,” she said. “Trying to
find our own place that would definitely
be a plus. We’d like funding to upgrade
the clothes, practice shirts, instead of a
whistle getting a microphone.”
It will be Sejla Gutic’s last year partici-pating
in this program. Gutic, who lives in
36 MARCH 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Astoria, is 17 and getting ready to go to
college. She said she wouldn’t “trade this
experience for anything.”
“Before I joined in 2012 I had no idea
how to dance,” she said. “I wasn’t really
connected with my cousins because tra-ditionally
at weddings we do dances that
we do here. I would never have fun at
weddings because I’d always be sitting
down. I wasn’t talking with people, com-municating.
And now because of this I’m
able to ask anybody to get up and dance
with me and it’s fun.”
Her favorite part of the program is at-tending
competitions and performances,
Photos courtesy of Angela Matua Photos courtesy of Facebook/KudHalaturko
she said. The group took a bus to North
Carolina a few years ago and though
the bus broke down, the dancers had a
great experience.
“I think the bus was one of the best
parts of this experience,” Gutic said. “We
had this big stereo that we just played
music from and sang along. And then
the bus ended up breaking down but
we went through it and it was great. It’s
more bonding for us.”
She credits Handanovic as part of the
reason the group has been so successful
during competitions.
“I don’t want to be conceited or any-thing
but from our culture I think we’re
one of the best studios,” she said. “Our
teacher, he’s one of the best teachers
I could ever ask for. He’s always trying
to push us and make us try harder and
do better.”
For more information about the pro-gram
or if you’d like to donate to Kud
Halaturko, call 646- 457-9867 or email
samir@osikek@yahoo.com. Donations
can be sent to Kud Halaturko at 544 W
50th St. Apt. #2FE New York, NY 11019.
Photos courtesy of Facebook/KudHalaturko
