OUR choreographers

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My name is Michael and I am a proud Macedonian folk dancer.

Having started my career in dancing at the age of 1 around the billiard table at Dedo and Baba’s house, I was always destined to be a Macedonian folk dancer. Flash forward 40 years later and I still feel the blood in my veins heat up a few degrees whenever I get onto the dance floor.

Dancing is an important part of my life and I wanted to give back to the community that has given me so much. It gave me pride in my 2000+ year old culture that my ancestors fought so fiercely for and even died for. It gave me pride in myself and confidence to take any social situation by the horns and enjoy the small things and connect with people that I may never have connected with without such skills and self belief. It developed my positive mindset that I needed to push tirelessly through 12 years of University studies and run successful businesses in Osteopathy and Acupuncture.

Passing this love, passion, pride and self belief to my children and their peers is a great honour that life has bestowed upon me. It has meant that I have become a role model to others as well as learning new things in life, such as adapting to modern times with old dances, stopping a class early to play a game of octopus and learning that apparently there are 7 different possible leg combinations when I say “lift your left leg”. I thank the next generation for keeping this fire burning through the echoes of time as they become the new custodians of an age old art form and culture and I look forward to one day hearing their kids say; “I am a proud Macedonian folk dancer.”

I was raised in a traditional Macedonian family where I attended many family and community events. Singing and dancing at these events was just a way of life. When I was growing up, nearly every child in the community was part of a Macedonian dancing group. Both my older brothers were choreographers in KUD Mladi Makedonci where I danced in this group from the age of 6. As a young teen I joined KUD Goce Delcev where I had the most memorable years and formed many beautiful friendships. I also choreographed their Junior group at age 17, following in my siblings’ footsteps. 

Fast forward twenty years later, after getting married and raising my own family, my passion for Macedonian folklore still lived within me, giving me a reason to join the TOŠE AMDE Seniors. Together with a few other Senior dancers, we created TOŠE Juniors with eight of our own kids. News quickly spread and the Juniors expanded to 2 groups, and today to 3 groups. I volunteered my services and took on the role of Teen choreographer which has given me such joy bringing the tradition of folklore dancing to the young children of our society. Watching them learn and grow, while singing and dancing makes me proud, allowing the Macedonian culture to continue to live through them is truly inspirational.

Today I continue to dance for the TOŠE Seniors and choreograph both TOŠE Junior and Teen sub-groups. This is my passion, this is my happy place, this is my Macedonian culture.

I was born into a traditional dancing family that ran for generations and generations. Both my father and mother were dancers and they encouraged me and my sister to step into their shoes. I started dancing at the early age of 5, under the umbrella of my father who was a choreographer of a leading dancing group in Macedonia. My love for folk dancing took me to a level of a choreographer at the age of 17. Since then, I have passed on Macedonian folk dancing skills onto many generations of young dancers as a choreographer in multiple dancing groups, both in Macedonia and Australia, including my own two daughters. 

I was one of the first members of TOŠE AMDE, head Choreographer and President for a period of time.

One of my greatest achievements and highlights in my dancing career was an honorable performance for Toše AMDE's 10-year anniversary theatre concert titled PROŠETKA OKOLU MAKEDONIJA - TRAVELS AROUND MACEDONIA, performing with the orchestra of TANEC Macedonia. My dream was realized in 2019 where we not only hosted the TANEC tour in Australia but had their world-renowned TANEC Orchestra play live for our TOŠE AMDE 10-year anniversary theatre concert. A great achievement for TOŠE AMDE as the very first Macedonian dance ensemble in the world, apart from TANEC, to be accompanied by the TANEC Orchestra on stage. 

My love for Macedonian music and dance stems from my love of our culture and heritage. I began folklore dancing at the tender age of 4 and danced for Tanec (Melbourne) for over 10 years. I have the fondest memories of learning new dances and performing them in front of my family, and making life long friends. The love of our music and dance has shaped me as a person immensely. It would be remiss if I don’t mention my grandmother and my beautiful mum, and their influence on me by singing to me and my brother and teaching us beautiful Macedonian songs from their childhood. All of this went hand in hand with my dancing journey and enhanced my passion for it all!

Now as an adult and parent of young children, I wanted to be a part of something on a larger scale, that would pass on the knowledge, pride and love, as it was passed on to me. So, I joined the amazing choreography team at Toše. It’s an absolute honour and privilege to be a part of such an amazing group. To see all the beautiful kids, including my own, learning and embracing their culture and heritage, whilst having fun, is so special.  I hope that in years to come, they will look back at this time in their life, with love and fondness, as I do. 

Growing up in Macedonia and being surrounded by Macedonian culture and music, I was always passionate about Macedonian folklore. As young as 3 years of age I was always on the dance floor at all family weddings and other functions.  At age 7 I joined KUD Ilinden Demir Hisar. With dedicated work and love towards our culture and dance I was a proud and respected member of the team.  Putting my heart and soul, hard work and resilience into our Macedonian folklore brought me and my team many successful concerts not only in Macedonia, but also outside the country. I have been on many tours around Europe and competed with many other dancing groups. I can proudly say, we Macedonians should be proud of our heritage and our cultural values.  

I always wanted my kids to be part of a Macedonian dancing group and was so happy when my daughter joined TOŠE AMDE and started understanding, loving our folklore, and following in my footsteps.

Being part of this choreography team is a pleasure and privilege to share our culture with extraordinary experienced choreographers. My aim is to inspire our Macedonian youth and to help them understand and develop our folklore, so one day they can pass it on to our future generations. Let's shape our kids to be ambassadors of our Macedonian community and culture. 

I want to finish with a phrase from a very popular Macedonian poet and novelist Petre M. Andreevski: “Племето наше е пиреј и не го ништи ни една војска. Ама ти колку сакаш кошка ја, корни ја, куби ја, таа пак не умира. Само малку да се допре до земјата и пак ќе се фати, ќе оживи, ќе потера.  Нисто не ја ништи таа трева. “