Before the Ceremony

Melrose Park, Illinois, June 1989. Members of Vėtra, the Connecticut folkdance group with which Mr. Irene performed, gather outside the church before our wedding. Vėtra later did a few numbers at the reception.

Graduation Day, in Three Takes

New Haven, Connecticut, May 25, 1987. These seats are reserved for the graduates.

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New Haven, Connecticut, May 25, 1987. There's Mr. Irene!

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New Haven, Connecticut, May 25, 1987. Even Aunt Martha had fun at the graduation picnic.

Related by Marriage: A Dance Festival, in Three Takes

Thirty years ago this month, the city of Cleveland, Ohio, hosted the Seventh World Lithuanian Dance Festival. Founded by Lithuanian Displaced Persons in 1957, the Dance Festival had convened every four years in Chicago through 1980. The Cleveland event was the first festival hosted outside of Chicago. Cleveland's ties to Lithuanian immigration and its tradition of preserving language and cultural practices paralleled Chicago’s. The city's decision to host the 1984 festival seemed like a natural extension of the Dance Festival tradition.

Mr. Irene was among the 2,000 folk dancers at the 1984 festival. He was the newest member of the Connecticut-based Lithuanian dance group, Vėtra. Mr. Irene had joined the group just three months before its festival debut in Cleveland. 

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Cleveland, Ohio, July, 1984.  Mr. Irene arrives in Cleveland in his rental car, a 1984 Pontiac Fiero. The car Mr. Irene originally had reserved car was not available, so the car-rental agency offered him the sports car at no additional cost.

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Cleveland, Ohio, July, 1984. Vėtra members perform at the Dance Festival.

Festival Reunion

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, July 1988. Members of Vėtra, the folk-dance group with which Mr. Irene performed in the 1980s, get ready to take the stage at the Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival.

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Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, July 1988. Dancers fill the floor in what looks like a waltz.