The group was christened ‘Orlęta’ (The Eaglets), which was associated with the children of the White Eagle Club – those attending Basia’s classes, as well as the name for the children who had defended the city of Lwów during the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1919. Lwów had the added significance of being the hometown of Basia’s mother, and the group’s new name inspired her to focus on learning and teaching traditional Polish folk dances from that city. It was one of the first dance groups to do so and became an inspiration for other groups which followed.
By 1977, the group was rehearsing only at the White Eagle Club. Basia fondly remembers the place as a hive of social life of the Polish Community of South London with regular parties, shows and community dances – everyone coming together.
We used to go to Polish dances, and everybody would come. We'd have people from the age of 14 up to the age of 70, everybody dancing with everybody, […] young with old, old with young, young with each other – once they learned how to dance, of course. I loved going because I loved being danced around the room by an elderly person because they always knew how to dance. It was nice to dance with somebody who can dance and lead you. So there were lots of dances. There were shows already. I tended not to go to the shows. I heard about them. I tended not to go because my husband didn't understand them being in English.
There was music and rewie. I don't know how to call that in English, just a comedy and singing and maybe some political comedy with it as well. And there were also obviously meetings of the various Polish organisations, such as the scouts. They would have their scouting kominki [fireplaces] there, the social gatherings where they would sit around a pretend campfire and sing songs. This was a few times a year at special occasions.
[…] until quite recently, there were meetings of the Women's Circle. Unfortunately, the Women's Circle has now virtually died out. Only a few people left, but the young women don't seem to want to get involved. But maybe if the club were slightly different, maybe somebody could start one up again and go on.
They would organise a Christmas bazaar. They'd bring in lots of foods. And then the money they raised would go to charity. People would have their own stalls. They organised these a few times a year. Christmas and Easter always […]. They would also meet together Tłusty Czwartek [Fat Thursday]!
What are the memories, my best memories? I loved zabawy, the parties. It was such fun dancing there to good music. That's before we stopped having bands, live bands, Polish live bands who could play. Rock and roll, tangos and waltzes, but also polka z oberkiem, kujawiakiem, whatever, and it was just, it was such fun to be able to dance so many different dances with so many different people. People were very friendly. And I knew each other. They were… They were very involved with the parish, it doesn't happen anymore.
If there are dances now in Balham at the Polish Club, it's discotheques and it's mostly… it's virtually just young Polish people from Poland, very few of the second or third generation [Poles in Britain], and they're not people who are actually getting involved with the community as such.
But things will change. Things changed before and things will improve. I'm sure. But it would be nice to have the old dancers back…