Lokica in Zagreb after 20 years: Čolić is angry with me

There was hardly a girl in the '70s and '80s who, when asked by the hairdresser how she wanted her hair cut, wouldn't answer: "Like Lokica!". Lokica Stefanović from Belgrade was truly a big star of the former Yugoslavia's entertainment scene, and after more than 20 years, she visited Zagreb this weekend, Croatian media report.

She sang and danced with her Lokice for Zdravko Čolić, Tereza Kesovija, Sedmorica mladih, she delighted Tito with her choreographies, and she herself devised the choreography for the closing ceremony of the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, in which about 200 high school students participated. She was literally a dance revolutionary of former Yugoslavia with unforgettable glittering leotards and an iconic hairstyle that she still wears today as a vibrant 70-year-old. And her love for dance brought Lokica to Zagreb's Contemporary Dance Week, where, she said, she was delighted by Staša Zurovac's performance "Dance Classes for Adults and Advanced", which she watched twice.

On Brijuni with Tito

- I saw many dear friends. As soon as I arrived in Zagreb, I called Cobra Balić, then we went to Drago Diklić's club, and I also spoke with Vlado Kalember. Basically, I felt at home, Lokica said.

She began her dance career with the group Jazz Bal, with whom she achieved success in the '60s.

- Jazz Bal guest-starred on the then most popular show of Television Zagreb, TV Magazin, directed by Anton Marti. In one episode, we sang, danced, and hosted, and we performed again on the New Year's Eve show with Tereza Kesovija. After the show, five of us were met by two Mercedes cars and taken to Brijuni to dance for Tito, Lokica recalls.
However, at the moment she graduated from architecture, Jazz Bal disbanded, and for the next five years, Lokica was primarily an architect and in 1970 she designed an 11-story building in the center of Pristina, which she says she only saw in 1996. 
 

Backing Band

However, she couldn't stay away from dancing for long, so in the mid-'70s she gathered "Lokice" and went on tour with Zdravko Čolić, "Putujući zemljotres" (Traveling Earthquake), which was interrupted by the singer's departure for military service. Guest appearances with Sedmorica mladih followed, during which as many as 200 episodes were recorded, and in the mere five years that Lokice existed, she also recorded the album "Ja sam dinamit" (I am dynamite), on which Srebrna krila was the backing band.

But her friendship with Zdravko Čolić was broken by Lokica's honest statement in the documentary "I sing by day, I sing by night", directed by Jovan Ristić Rice.

- I am not someone who will say something that isn't true. As the film was about Zdravko Čolić's life, Rice told me that everyone had "sugarcoated" their statements about the singer so much, so he asked me to say what everyone sees. And I said on camera that Zdravko is not talented at dancing, but that through work and effort he fit in with us and that the results of that work are visible at concerts. However, nothing after that "but" mattered, Lokica admits.

One of the most memorable choreographies of her career was for the closing ceremony of the Sarajevo Olympics.

- The closing ceremony was in the Zetra hall and 200 people were supposed to dance, so they wanted to invite the ballet, but I insisted that high school students dance. At that time, I didn't know I was pregnant, so I literally traveled to the last training sessions lying down on the train. The closing ceremony was on February 17th, but my daughter Ognjena decided to be born on February 15th, Lokica laughs, who will soon become a grandmother for the first time herself.

As she went to Broadway during her career to perfect her dance skills, she brought the idea of fitness from America in 1981. She was the first to start group training for women, had her own show Lokica on 3K on a local TV station in the '90s, and was the first to write two books dedicated to exercises, "Vježbe na stolici" (Chair Exercises) and "Pametno tijelo" (Smart Body). She still exercises today, practices yoga, and trains only women over 40.