Linđo had more than 30 choreographies in its repertoire, and owned 500 folk costumes and 50 instruments. The membership was divided in pioneers and youth groups, and to performers. Directed by Sulejman Muratović, an experienced manager and a dancer, and following the trends of the Zagreb School of Folklore, but also accepting to a certain extent the choreographies of a somewhat different type, Linđo was "devoid of any baletisation, routine professionalisation and choreographical and scenery imitations", as recorded by a newspaper critic. Its vivid performances gave an impression of a living and authentic traditional being.
Sulejman Muratović (born in 1937 in Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina) gained his first serious dance experience as a student of economy while dancing in an amateur group of Lado Folklore Ensemble. He was also a cofounder of the Zagreb Koleda Folklore Ensemble. Upon arrival in Dubrovnik in 1964, as the first manager and cofounder of Linđo, he affirmed himself as an excellent pedagogue, choreographer, years-long director and artistic director of the Ensemble.
The history of dance in the Dubrovnik area can be, owing to different sources and rare, but valuable, archive records, tracked from the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance and Baroque, classicism and romanticism, to the 20th century. The dance heritage of Dubrovnik reflects primarily in the dance culture of the West European and Mediterranean countries, and comprises court (learned) and popular (national) dance traits.
"And then competition appeared among the dancers, who danced better, who would travel where, who attended regularly. It was like an award for the efforts. So that made sense, we started to receive food allowance, attendances were recorded. It was also a way to be penalised: if you weren't there, if you failed to attend, you didn't receive food allowance. The discipline was top notch."
Jozo Serdarević
The beginnings of organised amateur folklore activities in Dubrovnik were recorded in the second half of the 20th century, when in educational institutions, as a part of extracurricular physical education activities smaller folklore groups were being organised. Holders of such programmes were rare teachers with sharp sense of preservation and presentation of traditional folklore heritage. Among them, we should mention Ms Milka Crnčević, a teacher who established and lead a folklore group in the Lapad Elementary School.
The wider Dubrovnik area and hinterland are the places of overlap of the two musical regions of the Republic of Croatia, the Dinaric and the Dalmatian. The older, archaic forms of singing are of Dinaric origin and distinguished by oligotonic elements, unison and dual-voiced singing and untuned tonal ratios. In addition to these types of singing, diatonic narrow-range melodies and more developed melodies in the Doric and Phrygian tonalities or modes (lullabies, wedding songs, harvest songs, ballades and epics) have also been recorded.
"Sule came here with a lot of experience. Nothing could go without him, he was always here, from the very beginning. He always attended rehearsals and performances. He was our mother and our father. We visited him at his home, and Višnja, his wife, taught us girls to sing, and we spent time in their home to socialize and to learn. Višnja helped very much, when she was a girl she would come from Zagreb every weekend and taught us girls dancing steps and singing in the Music School. She was also a member of the Koleda ensemble."
Anđelka-Seka Laptalo