SYDNEY: On Sunday the 29th of June 2014 the Hamazkaine Nairi Dance Group travelled to Yerevan Armenia to perform in the Arno Babajanian Concert Hall, as well as at the festival hosted by the Armenian Ministry of Diaspora.

Garineh Torossian and Isabelle Marcarian are two dancers who embarked on this tour, which was also a journey of pilgrimage and self-discovery. Although they both travelled to their motherland as dancers of the Nairi Dance Group, they returned with a renowned understanding of where they come from, and the sacrifices that have been made by their ancestors for them to able to proudly call themselves Armenians in a foreign country like Australia.

By Garineh Torossian

I would like to express my utmost gratitude to the Nairi Dance varchoutyoun and particularly our dance teachers Sona Khachatryan and Asadour Hajian for believing in our young group enough to dedicate the ridiculous amount of time, money and energy they sacrificed to organise an international dance tour of this scale.

Without such a solid support network I would have never in a million years had the opportunity to perform in our motherland.

The Nairi Dance Group was lucky enough to represent Australia in the "Im Hayastan" festival.

My first “pinch me” moment was definitely our entire dance group performing under the grand chandelier in the Armenian Opera House (We did you proud Australia, our dance group was the only one that gained media coverage).

Yerevan always has a way of bringing me back down to earth, allowing me to mentally and physically wipe the stress away and restart with a clean slate. The energy, air, and water all have a depth and weight that allows you to connect historically, religiously and culturally with the land. Simply walking down the street wasenough to make me smile and appreciate all that I have been given in life. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and comfort, and I genuinely felt like I was home.

The biggest reality check for me was meeting girls my age who were separated from their boyfriends because of the compulsory military service in Armenia. It made the pain of our past (as Armenians) all very real. It hurt to think that the threats are still very much raw and relevant. These young men still have to be separated from their families and loved one's, they are still putting their lives at risk to protect our homeland.

I feel it is our duty as members of the diaspora, to keep our culture alive through all forms and avenues. Dance is an incredibly powerful language that can be universally understood. It is through these non-invasive and multi lingual avenues that we can begin to internationally educate and communicate events of our past and present in a hope to preserve our culture for future generations.


By Isabelle Marcarian

I had never been to Armenia before. I had also never gone on an international trip with a group of friends before - so both things were new to me and I didn't know what to expect.

As soon as we got to Armenia, even though it was a foreign country it felt so comfortable. It was a peaceful and very relaxing atmosphere. There was a corner convenience store that we went to after we settled in and although it's initially weird to see everything written in Armenian we got used to it.

When we first arrived in Armenia everybody wanted to get their phones working straight away. Across the road there was a phone carrier called “Viva Cell” and straight away you could see the entire Nairi Dance Group in there all at once trying to sort out phone credit for the next two weeks. It was a bit tricky understanding phone plans and “minutes” because of the shop attenders dialect, but once we understood we could not believe that for the whole month we would only be paying $6 for unlimited internet.

We did a lot of sightseeing. Going to all the places that I'd only ever seen in photos and researched on the Internet seemed so surreal.

Tzidzernagapert was amazing even though the spire was under scaffolding and ruined all our photos. It was quite haunting to be there and I think we all experienced deep emotions about the genocide.

Another special experience was the cemetery where the fedayees were buried. As an AYF (Armenian Youth Federation) member this was a distinctive experience for me. We visited the grave of Sosee Mayrig and actually saw some of the remains inside. It was extraordinary that only a month before for Mother's Day I mentioned her in an AYF post, and now here standing above her burial in our Motherland.

The Armenian food was amazing! We favoured a soojoukh stand across the road from our hotel, which we probably ate at almost every day. Whenever you looked, there would be a line of Nairi dancers outside the shop, If you were looking for someone, the first place that you would check was across the road at these food stands.

We also underwent an incredible dancing experience. We got the chance to dance on the stage of the Opera House. There were dancers from all over the world, and it felt amazing to know that we were all linked by our culture, no matter which country we were from. To be able to all together at the Opening Ceremony of Paradon on that stage was an experience that I will never forget.

Everyone was so proud of the Nairi Dance Group and how eventhough we lived so far away we had managed to keep the Armenian language and culture alive.

The local Armenians were so open and kind to our group. Everywhere we went, we handed out tickets the local Armenians so that they could watch our concert. They were so excited, and we even had to move to a bigger hall than originally planned because of how many people wanted to come.

It was a great feeling to know that they were proud of us and supported what we were doing.

It is too hard for me to a favourite moment. When you have all your friends with you, and you're all staying in the same place and becoming like a family, it means every day is your favourite day. I loved going out at night to restaurants with the group and dancing together after dinner both with the older group and the younger group who came with us. It was great to get to know the younger dancers better and spend time with everybody.

I also loved getting to know the dancers from the Canadian dance group - we all became such close friends and I love the idea of being connected to people from half way around the world because of your culture and heritage.