Development in Ukraine
Classical choreographers in Ukraine began to turn to Vasyl Verkhovynets for his expertise when incorporating the increasingly popular folk motifs into their works. In addition to established names like V. Lytvynenko and Leonid Zhukov, younger choreographers like Pavlo Virsky, Mykola Bolotov, and Halyna Beryozova were choreographing with folk steps and forms. During this period (between the world wars), the three-part Hopak was developed by Verkhovynets.
In 1937, Pavlo Virsky and Mykola Bolotov founded the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR, with the goal of elevating folk-stage dance to its highest artistic level, and solidifying it as a viable stage art form. Although the group was disbanded during the Second World War, Lydia Chereshnova (who had directed the Ukrainian Song and Dance Ensemble entertaining troops during the war) brought it back into existence in 1951. After Vakhtang Vronsky of the Odessa Opera Theatre directed for a few seasons, Pavlo Virsky returned as artistic director of the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR from 1955 until his death in 1975. During this twenty-year period, Pavlo Virsky demonstrated tremendous creativity in his choreography and propelled Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance to a world-renowned level.
Performance of the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR
Other notable Ukrainian choreographers and companies include:
The Ukrainian Folk Choir, founded under the direction of Hryhoriy Veryovka in Kharkiv in 1943, including a contingent of dancers under directors Oleksander Dmytrenko, Leonid Kalinin, and later O. Homyn.
The Chornohora Songs and Dance Ensemble was founded by Yaroslav Chuperchuk in 1946, and renamed Halychyna in 1956.
The Dnipro Dance Ensemble was founded in Dnipropetrovsk prior to WWII, and flourished under Kim Vasylenko from 1947. Vasylenko has written numerous times on the topic of Ukrainian folk-stage dance, including the classic Lexicon of Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance.
The Yatran Dance Ensemble was founded in Kirovohrad in 1949, and gained great renown beginning in 1957 under director Anatoliy Krivokhyzha
Development in North America
Ukrainian immigrants brought their native traditions to the lands they settled, largely in Canada, Australia, the United States, and South America. Many village dances had survived the trip abroad and retained their traditional place at community gatherings (as documented in Andriy Nahachevskyy's book Social Dances of Ukrainian-Canadians). However, it was through the work of Vasyl Avramenko that Ukrainian dance secured a foothold in the West, developing as its own artform.
Vasyl Avramenko (1895-1981), began his career as a dance instructor at a Polish internment camp in 1921, having previously studied the theatrical arts in Kiev, and later with Mykola Sadovsky's troupe, where he met and received training from Vasyl Verkhovynets. After the war, Avramenko toured western Ukraine, instructing where he could, but eventually setting out to spread Ukrainian dance throughout the world. After travelling through Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany, Avramenko came to Canada in 1925.
Avramenko was able to create a dance troupes by enlisting local immigrants in Canada almost immediately upon his arrival. His missionary zeal soon spread a series of dance schools throughout Canada, including the cities of Toronto, Calgary, Oshawa, Hamilton, Fort William, Port Arthur, Kenora, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Yorkton, Regina, Vegreville, Canora, Dauphin, Windsor, and many others.
Eventually, Avramenko would establish schools in the United States, including New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Utica, Yonkers, Buffalo, Boston, and others.
Avramenko created many Ukrainian dance groups in his lifetime. A nomad by nature, he would often stay in one area for only 2-3 months at a time, or about as long as it took him to teach his entire set of dances to a new group of students. When he eventually left a town, Avramenko would appoint a leader to continue teaching the dances. Many of these appointed leaders later created their own Ukrainian dance groups. Because of this "Johnny Appleseed" approach to his artform, Vasyl Avremenko is known in the Ukrainian diaspora as the "Father of Ukrainian Dance," and is credited with spreading this Ukrainian dancing across the world.
Avramenko's students toured much of North America, performing to tremendous acclaim at important venues such as World's Fairs, and the White House. He once even gathered over 500 dancers to appear on stage with him in a lavish evening of Ukrainian dance performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, in 1931. Avramenko eventually moved into film production in the United States, producing film versions of the Ukrainian operas Natalka Poltavka and Cossacks in Exile, as well as other Ukrainian dramas, starring Ukrainian immigrants, and always featuring Ukrainian dancing.
In 1978, the Ukrainian Dance Workshop was started in New York by several leading teachers of Ukrainian dance in North America, including Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky. Trained in Lviv, Vienna, and later Winnipeg, Pryma-Bohachevsky had toured the world before settling in the United States and becoming the country's most prolific teacher and choreographer of Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance. For over twenty-five years, her direction of the Ukrainian Dance Workshop, and her Syzokryli Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, not only developed some of the finest Ukrainian dancers of North America, but also attracted already-established dancers. This combined pool of talent allowed Roma Pryma to try ever more innovative choreography, evoking modern Ukrainian themes such as the murder of outspoken musician Volodymyr Ivasiuk and the Chernobyl disaster. After developing the next generation of Ukrainian folk-stage dance instructors, establishing numerous schools and instructional intensives, choreographing hundreds of dances, and teaching thousands of students, Pryma-Bohachevsky died in 2004.
Development in Australia
One of the leading figures in the instruction of Ukrainian dance in Australia was Vladimir Kania, who organized his first adult dance ensemble in Perth in 1951, and ran that ensemble and others for decades. Kania had been trained in Ukrainian dance in his hometown of Yaroslav in Ukraine.
Another early innovator in Australia was Natalia Tyrawski, who founded the Ukrainian National Ballet (later renamed Veselka) in 1952 in Sydney. Tyrawski had studied and performed professionally in Ukraine, and continued to teach Ukrainian dance in Australia for almost fifty years.
In the 1960s, Vasyl Avramenko visited Australia and experienced similar successes in developing dancers on yet another continent and promoting the Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance style which he and Vasyl Verkhovynets had pioneered. Most of Avramenko's influence in Australia stemmed from his massive workshops, which were attended by students of various ages.
Marina Berezowsky moved to Perth, Australia with her husband in 1949, after having performed with numerous dance companies in Ukraine. After working extensively with the West Australian Ballet and the Australian Ballet School, she founded and became artistic director and resident choreographer of the Kolobok Dance Company in Melbourne in 1970, in the wake of successful Australian tours by various international folk dance companies. Kolobok's goal was to give artistic expression to the varied dance traditions brought to Australia by Ukrainians and other immigrants.
Classical choreographers in Ukraine began to turn to Vasyl Verkhovynets for his expertise when incorporating the increasingly popular folk motifs into their works. In addition to established names like V. Lytvynenko and Leonid Zhukov, younger choreographers like Pavlo Virsky, Mykola Bolotov, and Halyna Beryozova were choreographing with folk steps and forms. During this period (between the world wars), the three-part Hopak was developed by Verkhovynets.
In 1937, Pavlo Virsky and Mykola Bolotov founded the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR, with the goal of elevating folk-stage dance to its highest artistic level, and solidifying it as a viable stage art form. Although the group was disbanded during the Second World War, Lydia Chereshnova (who had directed the Ukrainian Song and Dance Ensemble entertaining troops during the war) brought it back into existence in 1951. After Vakhtang Vronsky of the Odessa Opera Theatre directed for a few seasons, Pavlo Virsky returned as artistic director of the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR from 1955 until his death in 1975. During this twenty-year period, Pavlo Virsky demonstrated tremendous creativity in his choreography and propelled Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance to a world-renowned level.
Performance of the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR
Other notable Ukrainian choreographers and companies include:
The Ukrainian Folk Choir, founded under the direction of Hryhoriy Veryovka in Kharkiv in 1943, including a contingent of dancers under directors Oleksander Dmytrenko, Leonid Kalinin, and later O. Homyn.
The Chornohora Songs and Dance Ensemble was founded by Yaroslav Chuperchuk in 1946, and renamed Halychyna in 1956.
The Dnipro Dance Ensemble was founded in Dnipropetrovsk prior to WWII, and flourished under Kim Vasylenko from 1947. Vasylenko has written numerous times on the topic of Ukrainian folk-stage dance, including the classic Lexicon of Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance.
The Yatran Dance Ensemble was founded in Kirovohrad in 1949, and gained great renown beginning in 1957 under director Anatoliy Krivokhyzha
Development in North America
Ukrainian immigrants brought their native traditions to the lands they settled, largely in Canada, Australia, the United States, and South America. Many village dances had survived the trip abroad and retained their traditional place at community gatherings (as documented in Andriy Nahachevskyy's book Social Dances of Ukrainian-Canadians). However, it was through the work of Vasyl Avramenko that Ukrainian dance secured a foothold in the West, developing as its own artform.
Vasyl Avramenko (1895-1981), began his career as a dance instructor at a Polish internment camp in 1921, having previously studied the theatrical arts in Kiev, and later with Mykola Sadovsky's troupe, where he met and received training from Vasyl Verkhovynets. After the war, Avramenko toured western Ukraine, instructing where he could, but eventually setting out to spread Ukrainian dance throughout the world. After travelling through Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany, Avramenko came to Canada in 1925.
Avramenko was able to create a dance troupes by enlisting local immigrants in Canada almost immediately upon his arrival. His missionary zeal soon spread a series of dance schools throughout Canada, including the cities of Toronto, Calgary, Oshawa, Hamilton, Fort William, Port Arthur, Kenora, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Yorkton, Regina, Vegreville, Canora, Dauphin, Windsor, and many others.
Eventually, Avramenko would establish schools in the United States, including New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Utica, Yonkers, Buffalo, Boston, and others.
Avramenko created many Ukrainian dance groups in his lifetime. A nomad by nature, he would often stay in one area for only 2-3 months at a time, or about as long as it took him to teach his entire set of dances to a new group of students. When he eventually left a town, Avramenko would appoint a leader to continue teaching the dances. Many of these appointed leaders later created their own Ukrainian dance groups. Because of this "Johnny Appleseed" approach to his artform, Vasyl Avremenko is known in the Ukrainian diaspora as the "Father of Ukrainian Dance," and is credited with spreading this Ukrainian dancing across the world.
Avramenko's students toured much of North America, performing to tremendous acclaim at important venues such as World's Fairs, and the White House. He once even gathered over 500 dancers to appear on stage with him in a lavish evening of Ukrainian dance performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, in 1931. Avramenko eventually moved into film production in the United States, producing film versions of the Ukrainian operas Natalka Poltavka and Cossacks in Exile, as well as other Ukrainian dramas, starring Ukrainian immigrants, and always featuring Ukrainian dancing.
In 1978, the Ukrainian Dance Workshop was started in New York by several leading teachers of Ukrainian dance in North America, including Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky. Trained in Lviv, Vienna, and later Winnipeg, Pryma-Bohachevsky had toured the world before settling in the United States and becoming the country's most prolific teacher and choreographer of Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance. For over twenty-five years, her direction of the Ukrainian Dance Workshop, and her Syzokryli Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, not only developed some of the finest Ukrainian dancers of North America, but also attracted already-established dancers. This combined pool of talent allowed Roma Pryma to try ever more innovative choreography, evoking modern Ukrainian themes such as the murder of outspoken musician Volodymyr Ivasiuk and the Chernobyl disaster. After developing the next generation of Ukrainian folk-stage dance instructors, establishing numerous schools and instructional intensives, choreographing hundreds of dances, and teaching thousands of students, Pryma-Bohachevsky died in 2004.
Development in Australia
One of the leading figures in the instruction of Ukrainian dance in Australia was Vladimir Kania, who organized his first adult dance ensemble in Perth in 1951, and ran that ensemble and others for decades. Kania had been trained in Ukrainian dance in his hometown of Yaroslav in Ukraine.
Another early innovator in Australia was Natalia Tyrawski, who founded the Ukrainian National Ballet (later renamed Veselka) in 1952 in Sydney. Tyrawski had studied and performed professionally in Ukraine, and continued to teach Ukrainian dance in Australia for almost fifty years.
In the 1960s, Vasyl Avramenko visited Australia and experienced similar successes in developing dancers on yet another continent and promoting the Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dance style which he and Vasyl Verkhovynets had pioneered. Most of Avramenko's influence in Australia stemmed from his massive workshops, which were attended by students of various ages.
Marina Berezowsky moved to Perth, Australia with her husband in 1949, after having performed with numerous dance companies in Ukraine. After working extensively with the West Australian Ballet and the Australian Ballet School, she founded and became artistic director and resident choreographer of the Kolobok Dance Company in Melbourne in 1970, in the wake of successful Australian tours by various international folk dance companies. Kolobok's goal was to give artistic expression to the varied dance traditions brought to Australia by Ukrainians and other immigrants.
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