DATELINE NEW YORK: A Lincoln Center presentation (05/18/97)

DATELINE NEW YORK: A Lincoln Center presentation

by Helen Smindak

Ukrainian American folk dancers trained in ballet, character and modern dance, and singers who make up the largest mixed chorus outside Ukraine combined their talents at Lincoln Center Sunday night, May 11. Their skilled efforts resulted in a panoply of vivid costumes, unique choreography, fine choral interpretations and outstanding dance work that the standing-room-olny audience applauded with gusto. At the end, the Syzokryli Ukrainian Dance Ensemble and the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of America assembled on the stage of Alice Tully Hall to acknowledge a standing ovation.

Appropriately for Mothers' Day, the concert was dedicated to all mothers "because none of us would be here without them," noted a concert announcer before the show.

Although the 65-member Dumka Chorus, directed by Vasyl Hrechynsky, turned in its usual fine performance, the evening belonged to the Syzokryli dancers - close to 40 young men and women who danced their hearts out, clearly enjoying the exhilaration of Ukrainian folk dancing, the benefits of a spacious stage and the vigorous applause of the audience.

While the majority of dances extolled folk dance, the opening number was a modern dance, a re-enactment of early Ukrainian history titled "Ikona." Icon figures came to life in the ikonostas segment, gliding slowly and gracefully about the stage and assuming striking postures and poses as they portrayed events in the New Testament. The scene shifted to the pagan era of Kyivan Rus', with dancers performing hahilky and pagan rituals, and others showing Princess Olha's conversion to Christianity, her sainthood and the removal of pagan idols. The entrance of Prince Volodymyr the Great, holding aloft a huge cross to symbolize the baptism of Ukraine, brought the scenario to a dramatic conclusion.

Conceived and directed by Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky to music by S. Liapunov in commemoration of Ukraine's millennium of Christianity, "Ikona" was graced by beautiful costumes and skillful lighting that transformed gold lamé gowns to bronze- and rose-hued garments. Principal soloists were Lida Kulbida, as the Oranta, mother of God; Ania Bohachevsky Lonkevych (Princess Olha), Christopher Gates (Crucifixion), and Mark Sklaryk (Grand Prince Volodymyr). Other dancers took the roles of winged archangels, saints and archers in scarlet capes and silver helmets, with the entire cast appearing as soldiers and citizens.

The traditional welcome dance, "Pryvit," performed by the full ensemble and ending with the respectful offering of bread and salt, was notable for the charming movements of the women holding embroidered ritual towels as they moved in circle formations.

With the greetings over, the dancers turned their energies and skills to the joys of Ukrainian folk dancing in the Volyn, Bukovyna and Lemko regions of Ukraine. High-spirited and marked by nimble footwork, "Volynianka" was a flirtatious dance that had the men twirling the girls like tops, causing striped skirts to billow out like mini-parachutes.

A Bukovynian medley brought out eight couples to demonstrate the intricate footwork and head bobbing typical of the dances of Bukovyna, the women attired in striped wrap skirts and unusual feather-tipped headdresses, the men sporting black vests over white trousers and long tunics. In the Lemko number, men in blue vests that matched the deep blue of the women's aprons and cropped jackets took the spotlight with synchronized prysidky (squatting steps).

In the second half of the show, the Syzokryli ensemble concentrated on the Hutsul region - "Hutsulian Rhapsody," a stylized romantic dance intended to illustrate the beauty of the Carpathian Mountains; "Vorozhennia," a dance focusing on young women's games with a wedding wreath to invoke the happiness of love; and a Hutsul wedding dance showing Hutsul courtship customs and attendants dressing a bride for her wedding, culminating in a kaleidoscope of whirling dancers.

The traditional Hopak dance from Poltava that has become a familiar conclusion to any Ukrainian dance program was performed as the evening's finale, with the entire company participating in a spectacular display of nicely coordinated movements and patterns. As usual, the men stole the spotlight as they frolicked in saber play and acrobatic feats - daredevil leaps, backward flips and a variety of fast-moving, exciting squats. In the role of the men's leader, Andrij Cybyk, stood out as a dancer and a showman.

For its part, the Dumka Chorus appeared twice during the evening, performing both classical compositions and animated folk songs. With Mr. Hrechynsky directing and Genya Paley at the keyboard of a grand piano, the ensemble offered Andriy Hnatyshyn's reverential "Ave Maria" and the chorus from Mykola Lysenko's opera "The Drowned Maiden." The Lysenko work began with a quiet love refrain by the male singers, eliciting a bright response from the women's section and finally breaking into a lively dialogue between the two groups.

Filaret Kolessa's "If I Could Go Dancing," set to lyrics by Taras Shevchenko, received excellent solo work from soprano Swiatoslava Zyla-Kaczaraj (the soloist as well for "Ave Maria"), alto Oksana Lykhovyd and tenor Omelan Helbig. The chorus ended with a presentation with Lysenko's arrangement of "Vesnianky," a selection of exuberant spring songs.

Performing first in formal attire that featured bright green gowns with gold neckline embellishment (done gerdan-style) for the women and evening attire for the men, the Dumka Chorus appeared on stage after the intermission in folk costumes of the Poltava region, thus setting the tone for Dennis Sichynsky's ode to the Dnipro River and a variety of popular folk songs. Solos in "The Roaring Dnipro" and Evhen Kozak's "Stoyit Hora Vysokaya" (A High Mountain), a yearning for lost youth, were handled, by baritone Ronald Liteplo and tenor Borys Kekish, respectively.

The chorus offered a lively interpretation of songs of the highlands as arranged by Lysenko in "Verkhovyno" and these folk songs: "On the Eve of Kupalo," a midsummer-festival melody arranged by Ivan Bidak with alto Natalia Honcharenko as soloist, and Mykola Rakov's arrangement of "Oy Dub" (The Oak Tree), a spirited repartee between men's and women's voices that concluded this portion on a good-humored note.

Program notes credit costumes to Christine Buk, Aneta Koval, Anna Mandzy, Lydia Pastushak and Olenka Yurchuk; lighting to Yuriy Denysenko, logo design to Oksana Tsiselska, and recordings to Electronova.

As might be expected, a concert by non-professional groups was not entirely without deficiencies, but these were minor - a soloist's voice occasionally drowned out by the chorus, a gap now and then in a dance pattern, and a lack of volume in the recorded music that accompanied dance routines.

Mrs. Pryma-Bohachevsky, founder and director of the Syzokryli ensemble since its creation in 1978, remarked after the performance: "I always would like to do better, but one must remember that many of the dancers were performing on a large stage for the first time."

The director/choreographer, who dreams of taking the Syzokryli dancers on a tour of major U.S. and Canadian cities but notes that "we need a sponsor," has dedicated herself to teaching since she opened her own dance school in New York City in 1963. The Lviv-born soloist with the Lviv State Theater of Opera and Ballet and prima ballerina at the Innsbruck State Opera House also teaches classes in Astoria, N.Y., in Fairfield, Conn., Albany and the New Jersey communities of Newark and Whippany.

The Dumka Chorus, founded by emigres in New York 48 years ago, aims to bring the richness of Ukrainian folk, classical, liturgical and contemporary music to the world. Directed for the past five years by Mr. Hrechynsky, a teacher of conducting at the Lviv Conservatory, the chorus has given concerts throughout the U.S. and Europe and received the Mykola Lysenko award for musical achievement and performance during its 1995 tour of Ukraine.

The concert was sponsored by the Self-Reliance Federal Credit Union of New York and the Ukrainian National Association, with partial funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.

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