"By appreciating folk art, we give it a new content, a new form. We think that the words - folk and modern - would describe the artistic direction of the ensemble." - this is how the long-time artistic director Vidas Aleksandravičius described the ensemble. It is in this artistic direction that the ensemble is currently led by artistic director Eugenijus Čiplys, choir director Dovilė Mačiukaitė-Krasauskienė, orchestra director Virginija Alenskienė, dance group leaders Indrė Jakubėnaitė-Alaburdiene, Roberta Leščinskaitė-Jančiulienė and Albertas Švelginas. When in 1940 Genovaitė Dumčiūtė-Breichmanienė founded the national dance group of university girls, no one thought that after a few dozen years it would grow into an Ensemble uniting more than a hundred musicians, dancers and singers.
All those years, the ensemble was nurtured and formed by many excellent leaders, professionals in their fields. All former and current leaders mean a lot to the existence and further development of the ensemble. Only because of their work and desire to achieve only the best result, the VU Ensemble has achieved such results and has won countless awards. For many years, ensemble members have had the opportunity to learn from the best and most distinguished professionals, who help students not only improve, but also inspire them to achieve their goals, often being not only pedagogues, but also life teachers for students. Their legacy is passed on to new generations, even now, in the ensemble's programs, not only the works of other Lithuanian authors are performed, but also the works of the ensemble leaders themselves. Authentic and arranged folk songs, dances and musical works are always decorated with student spirit and professionalism.
Only due to the joint hard work of managers and students over the years, the Ensemble expands, creates and delights others with its countless performances, achievements and awards. During the eighty years of its activity, the Ensemble did not stop spreading its ideas, grew up creatively and did not stop looking for new forms of expression, which makes each concert more and more different, more sensitive and more impressive, charming not only the audience at home, but also the national art of many other countries around the world. fans. Nurturing and developing long-standing traditions, but creating and being able to broadcast all this in a modern and unique way.
Now the ensemble consists of more than a hundred dancers, musicians and singers. For them, the ensemble is the best way to spend their free time, a second family, where they are happy to gather after lectures, work or difficult exam sessions. In the ensemble there is not only dancing, playing and singing - it is always alive with student sensibility for everything - a friend, a leader, music, movement, an idea. Wrapping all this with authenticity, the ensemble member feels like a mediator between history and the present, between tradition and modernity, between the stage and life. It is unequivocally one of the most beautiful adventures of life, which remains in the memory for a long time.
