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 The
Regional Song and Dance Ensemble "LACHY" has been
established in 1956 at the initiative of the cooperatives operation
in the Nowy Sącz region, with a truly significant support of
the Provincial Labour Cooperatives Association in Cracow and
the personal engagement of Ms Maria Kurletto-Wasilewska. The
chronicles honor also other founders of the ensemble: Marcin
Adamek, Janina Jędrzejowska, Zygmunt Podhalański, Stanisław
Przydoń, Adam Soberka, Maria Węgrzynek. A significant work for
the organization of the ensemble has been contributed by Fransiszek
Pająk - the president of the Regional Labour and Craftsmanship
Cooperative, as well as by Marcin Adamek, the long-time manager
of the ensemble.
Ms Zofia Żytkowicz served as the very first instructor to work
for the ensemble, being a most wonderful instructor and a very
special educator for many generations of ensemble participants
- working continually until 1975. The first program designed
by Ms Zofia Żytkowicz and entitled "THE REGION DANCES AND
SINGS"  was presented on 22 July 1956.
And this is were the history pages of the ensemble begin to
be written. The program swiftly becomes very popular and receives
its first recognitions. New enthusiasts, lovers and experts
on folklore are soon to find their way to the ensemble: Aleksandra
Szurmiak-Bogucka and Kazimierz Bogucki, a long-time art manager
of the ensemble. Now all three become engaged in the work on
the program. New dances, folk songs, customs, traditions and
games, characteristic for the Nowy Sącz region, are introduced.
At the initiative of both Mr and Mrs Bogucki, the name "LACHY"is
first introduced in 1959. It is well known, that the only true
interpretation of that name lies in the term that came to be
used by ethnographers to refer to the people of the Nowy Sącz
region, with their cultural, ethnic and customary distinctiveness,
as well as the language and dress particularities.
In parallel to the adults group, Ms Zofia Żytkowicz works with
the children's ensemble, and it is good times for the both.
Concerts, prizes, awards, first radio and television recordings
all mark the success.
 The first trip to England in 1962 opens the doors to the entire
continent. Thus the ensemble gave its performances abroad in
Germany, France, Italy (and Sicily as well), Hungary, Belgium,
Czechoslovakia, Georgia, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Yugoslavia,
Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, the United States, Turkey and
Ukraine. Many of those countries we have visited on more than
one occasion.
Beginning with the ensemble's history, and up until 1975, it
has always been accompanied by the band - known as the "Józefowski"
band, with its unforgettable leader Mr Jan Józefowski, his brother
Mikołaj, his sons Rudolf and Józef. The band saw also the participation
of such musicians as Edward Turski, Jan Szabla, Józef Wojsław,
Tomasz Bocheński senior and junior. Half of the ensemble's undeniable
success was due to that very band, which at the time was one
of the best in Poland. Preserving the characteristic music and
singing tradition of the Nowy Sącz region, with its Lachy people,
was the task that Mrs Aleksandra Bogucka, a talented ethnomusicologist,
mastered to perfection.
As the members of the ensemble changed, so was the band changed
as well. It bred its own generations of renowned musicians Roman
Siemiączko, Stanisław Kołodziej, Roman Goryca - a long-time
accompanist for the  ensemble, Mieczysław Reszczyński, Benedykt
i Bogdan Matusik, Piotr Dziechciowski, Jerzy Barzyk, Jacek Kiełbasa,
Zbigniew Sasak (presently, the manager of the band and the accompanist
for the ensemble), along with many more.
Over the 48 years of the ensemble's history it has been managed
by: Marcin Adamek, Adam Sobczyk, Krystyna Łodzińska, Wojciech
Dębicki, Robert Sobol, Maria Kmak, and in the years 1989 to
2003, Michalina Wojtas, a great enthusiast and expert on folklore,
being the art and administrative manager, as well as an instructor
for the ensemble - for many years, all functions being a community
work that she contributed. At the present, the ensemble is
managed
by Ms Teresa Grochal.
The instructors for the ensemble, over those years were: the
aforementioned Zofia Żytkowicz and Michalina Wojtas, as well
as Jan Zarzeka, Lidia Czechowska, Monika Bulińska, Barbara Sokołowska,
Katarzyna Karasek and Magda Waśko, continually working with
the "Małe Lachy" children's ensemble since 1977.
Since 1990, the ensemble operates under the patronage of the
"FRIENDS OF THE LACHY REGIONAL ENSEMBE SOCIETY"
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