On February 11, 2012 in the Grand Hall of The White Eagle Society building located at 1956 Frontenac in Montreal, Canada, the Miss Polonia contest was held to choose the new Miss for 2012. Six lovely ladies aged 16 to 22 competed for the honour of representing the Polish community of Montreal and through the evening were judged on the following criteria: presentation, speaking skills, dance and talent.

10th Anniversary and more…

The White Eagle Society has now hosted this very popular event for the last 10 years. The MISS POLONIA event has however been held for many more years than that. Some of our seniors can remember the event taking place right back to the end of WWII and others believe it was held ever since Poles immigrated to Montreal in the 19th century. Obviously we have to do some research in the archives to find the origin, but it stands to reason that being Canada’s largest city since before confederation until 1978, Montreal had the largest Polish population and would have kept and started traditions. The Irish community are celebrating their 186th parade this year so the Poles couldn’t be too far behind.

One of our own competed

Miss Monika Matusiewicz, a dancer in the Academy, got hold of her nerves and threw her lot into the basket. She did us all proud when she entered the hall wearing a beautiful silver-sequenced evening dress. This beauty was eloquent in her speech and of course danced superbly. For her talent she chose to perform exerpts of dances from our repertoire accompanied by her partner, Adam Jed. Several of the younger girls in the public commented that she looked just like a “Barbie Doll”. Monika came in as 1st runner-up and all of us at the Academy are so proud of her!

Proud of our new MISS

Miss Elizabeth Skalak, close friend of the Academy took the prize! A musician in her own right, she sang and played the piano to the delight of the packed crowd. Her poise, her dancing skills and oral presentation were all right on the mark that evening and she is a most deserving winner. We congratulate her and wish her much success in her studies and career.

The White Eagle Folk Dance Academy played a huge supporting role throughout the event. Six of our young gentlemen danced the Polonez with the candidates and Pawel Kowlaski especially played a key role as he escorted each and everyone of the young ladies throughout the whole event. All of the dancers joined in at the opening of the 2nd Act and performed the “Kuduro” as back-up dancers for the candidates as they strut their stuff. Our Artistic Director, Richard Schmidt, choreographed both of these numbers for the occasion.

 Past and Future

The Academy is proud to be actively involved in our community and support to the best of our ability. Even though the dancers performed that evening, they also attended extra rehearsals, helped with decorating and even paid for their tickets. The White Eagle Society kindly gave them half-off and everybody was happy. The spirit of cooperation is very strong between the two associations and we look forward to many more years of collaboration.

Several of our female dancers have competed and won in past Miss Polonia competitions and the reigning Mr. Polonia 2011, Sebastian Wrobel, is a proud member of the group. We are also expecting future candidates and winners to come out of the Academy and we are proud of all of them.