DRAGAN'S STORY
"Back in late 60's I was very busy playing and dancing with various Yugoslav groups and folk dancing societies in London and various other uk places where there were other Yugoslav communities,at various functions and weddings that they organized. Although , even before this, I took great interest in folk dancing and had the pleasure of meeting with the legendary Ken Ward and together with his Balkan folk dance group and two of my Yugoslav friends performed a number of Yugoslav Solo dances and mixed dances at the Royal festival hall. It is at one of the dances at the Serbian Orthodox church in London where I was playing with a Yugoslav group and singer "Pola", that I met some of the Dunav group musicians who were renting one of the rooms on the Church premises for their rehearsals,, After their rehearsal they came inside the dance hall and played with us a number of dances. Although I met Narendra Kotiyan before during my folk dancing days with Ken Ward's folk group, I had the pleasure to meet up with Henry Morris, John Baldwin, Susan Coppard , Frank Beer and Geoff Sole, who were the earliest members of Dunav Group. It worked out to be a good combination as both, Pola and myself worked together with the group for a number of years and Henry Morris managed to learn from us some of the Yugoslav Classic songs and perform them to a very high standard, which apart from 'Kafu mi draga ispeci' , sadly we don't perform any more as a group, This is how I met up with the Dunav Group. Dragan."
Dragan died in March 2023
Rest in peace