By NORA SORENA CASEY Special to the Daily Press
MONTANA AVENUE Looking at Andrius Ruplenas’tanned face and long blond hair,you might guess that the 13 year old likes to spend his summer days surfing and skateboarding. It’s surprising that he wakes up at 8 a.m. every Saturday morning to drive to Beverly Hills to practice Lithuanian folk dancing.
Ruplenas has been learning Lithuanian folk dances since he was 5. Recently, he has been practicing every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in preparation for Sokiu Svente, a Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival that will take place on July 6. His whole family will be part of the festival, dressed in traditional Lithuanian garb, along with roughly 1,200 other dancers of Lithuanian heritage from around the world.
Folk dance is just one of the ways that Ruplenas and his family keep their heritage alive. The school where Ruplenas learned dancing also teaches students Lithuanian grammar, spelling and reading.
“We talk Lithuanian a lot,” said Ruplenas, reflecting on the way his heritage influences his daily life. “We have special potato pancakes and those are really good.”
The Lithuanian social network has certainly made its mark on the entire family. Ruplenas’ parents met at a Lithuanian dance festival — his mother is from California and his father is a Lithuanian from Argentina.
Meeting people that share his heritage has been an integral part of Ruplenas’ life. He has even made a number of friends at a Lithuanian Boy Scout camp that he attends every summer, where they do the same things that the American Boy Scouts do, but at camp they speak and sing exclusively in Lithuanian.
“It’s really cool because I don’t get to see all my friends that go there because they live far away,” said Ruplenas.
His school is composed of approximately 200 students, from preschool to high school. Families drive from all over the Southern California area, even coming from as far away a Palm Springs. Ruplenas’ mother met some of her best friends when she attended the same Lithuanian school, and has kept those friends her whole life. Ruplenas hopes to do the same.
“It really makes the word a smaller place,” said his mom, Lina Ruplenas.“You go somewhere and it’s like ‘oh my gosh’ and you’re family already.”
The strong sense of tradition marks folk dance as well. The dances have remained the same over the decades, and they tell stories about Lithuanian life. Lithuanian dances feature groups which form intricate patterns and chains. From above, the dancer’s create whirling circular shapes that are supposed to represent the windmills out on the fields.
Although Andrius Ruplenas enjoys folk dancing, the demands of a more typical Santa Monica teenage lifestyle are beginning to take up more and more of his time. He plays soccer multiple times a week and surfs on the Lincoln Middle School surf team when at school. Over the summer,Andrius Ruplenas says he hits the beach to go surfing at least twice a week and skateboards almost every day. When asked what he preferred most, he couldn’t choose.
“I can’t say that. They’re all so fun,” he said. “Like, if someone said do you want to go surfing or skateboarding today I probably couldn’t decide.”
As a Lincoln student, he was also disturbed by the recent molestation charges against former teacher Thomas Beltran.
“Everyone was super shocked,” he said. “Some of my friends had him. He just seemed so nice and they all loved him.”
He plans to continue at Lincoln as en eighth grader next year, and is considering different high school options. He says that he loves Lincoln, his friends and teachers there.
However, his strong Lithuanian traditions are not common among his school friends. The strong cultural traditions provide his family with a common ground and experience that they can always share, something he enjoys.
“It’s just fun to get to dance with everyone you know and after you just smile and tell everyone, ‘that was fun,’ and ‘lets try that part again,’” he said, smiling.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 30, 2008. Read the original PDF.