DATELINE NEW YORK: A host of exciting, and diverse, events (05/02/99)

DATELINE NEW YORK: A host of exciting, and diverse, events

by Helen Smindak

And the beat goes on - that Ukrainian beat of creativity and achievement in the visual and performing arts, never more insistent than at present. Wherever one turned in recent weeks, there were Ukrainian stars and performers, thrilling audiences in a host of exciting events - folk dancing, figure skating, ballet, Broadway and off-Broadway performances, museum exhibits and recitals, as well as on television.

Composer wins praise

Composers and musicians find great pleasure in creating a new work, but that joy is even more satisfying when the piece receives warm praise from a reviewer. Dmitry Polischuk, a former resident of Vinnytsia, Ukraine, must be very happy with the words of approbation sent his way by The New York Times dance critic Jack Anderson regarding "Post No Scriptum," a new ballet choreographed by Robert Hill with music by Mr. Polischuk.

Wrote Mr. Anderson: "Robert Hill's 'Post No Scriptum' made one wish to see more choreography by Mr. Hill, a principal dancer with (American) Ballet Theater, and to hear more music by Dmitry Polischuk, the work's Ukrainian-born composer. The nervous energy of the production's sounds and movements commanded attention."

The ballet, about unresolved emotional relationships, was termed by Mr. Anderson "artistically rewarding" and "worthy of serious consideration." It was performed by the ABT Studio Company at the Kaye Playhouse on March 30 and 31.

Easter eggs and baskets

As always at this time of year, our joyous Easter customs are receiving an outstanding exposition at The Ukrainian Museum, with colorful pysanky presented in the work of two skilled artists from Ohio who also happen to be sisters, Tania Osadca and Aka Pereyma.

Featuring 400 of Ms. Osadca's traditional decorated eggs and many examples of Ms. Pereyma's multi-faceted contemporary art - mixed media, ceramics and sculptures that incorporated pysanka designs and symbols - the exhibition opened on March 21 and will remain on view until June 6.

The breathtaking display has already enchanted hundreds of local and out-of-town viewers, from pre-schoolers to senior citizens. They crowded the museum in late March and early April for the annual Easter egg-decorating workshops and demonstrations, and a leisurely perusal of elaborately embellished eggs with motifs and colors typical of various regions of Ukraine.

Throwing a nationwide spotlight on Ukrainian Easter traditions and pysanky, the "Martha Stewart Living" TV show carried by CBS on April 2 starred Canadian pysanka expert Eva Tomiuk of Edmonton. Starting with a raw white egg and using a kystka (stylus), Ms. Tomiuk demonstrated the wax-resist method of egg decorating for Ms. Stewart, who had donned an embroidered Hutsul vest for the occasion. With soft bandura music in the background, Ms. Tomiuk explained the meaning of colors and symbols, adding some historical background as she worked.

Later, Ms. Tomiuk chatted briefly in Polish with Ms. Stewart's mother, Martha, before pointing out the essential elements of a perfect Ukrainian Easter basket - ham, beet/horseradish relish, cottage cheese, butter shaped in the form of a lamb, salt, a paska loaf that held a candle, and a tall cylindrical babka. The segment also included a demonstration of Ms. Tomiuk's method of preparing beets and horseradish, using coarsely grated cooked beets and finely grated horseradish seasoned with vinegar, salt and sugar.

Expertise on ice

During a two-hour skating extravaganza at Madison Square Garden on April 16, skating stars Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko represented Ukraine in this year's John Hancock "Champions on Ice" summer tour that's scheduled to stop at 45 cities nationwide between April 9 and June 19.

The two popular skaters were among more than 30 Olympic and world champions who brought down the house with their individualistic stylings. Other performers included Michelle Kwan, Surya Bonaly, Maria Butyrskaya, Todd Eldredge, Rudy Galindo, Phillipe Candeloro and Elvis Stojko, as well as pairs skaters Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, and ice dancers Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko.

Appearing for her solo number, Ms. Baiul, her blonde hair caught in an elegant chignon, wore a sophisticated black lace dress that covered her neck and graceful arms but bared her long legs. She skated a balletic performance, displaying (except for one unfortunate fall during a jump) a newly regained confidence and technical prowess.

One of the youngest world and Olympic champions in history, Ms. Baiul is continuing to grow as an artist and as a professional. Her life story was made into a TV movie, she has her own line of skating dresses and has authored two books, "Oksana: My Own Story" and "Secrets of Skating."

Mr. Petrenko, who followed her on the ice, whipped the crowd into a frenzy of cheers and whistles with his Michael Jackson imitations, complete with one-gloved hand and the famous Jackson "moonwalk" movements. An Olympic gold medalist, Mr. Petrenko's strong interpretive and technical skills - whether in the classics, jazz or rock - have made him an audience favorite on the "Champions on Ice" tours.

In the New York area, the ice show is scheduled for the Continental Airlines Arena (Rutherford, N.J.) on May 8 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and for Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, N.Y.) on May 9 at 3 p.m. For other cities, check local newspaper listings. Wherever you see the show, watch for the image of the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag dancing across the ice with other international flags at the start of the show and after intermission.

Farewell to Gretzky

Just two days after the triumphant "Champions on Ice" show, another skater of Ukrainian ancestry took the spotlight before a crowd of 18,200 hockey fans at Madison Square Garden. Wayne Gretzky, The Great One, No. 99, had announced his retirement from hockey on Friday, April 16, and the sports world was saying good-bye to an incomparable hockey player who was (in the words of The New York Times' Harvey Araton) "his country's hero, his generation's standard, a father's teaching model."

Sunday was Gretzky's last game after 20 years in the National Hockey League. The doors at the Garden opened a half-hour earlier than usual, and the New York Rangers conducted a ceremony following warm-ups for their game with the Pittsburgh Penguins. A video tribute to the Great One was aired during each break in play and at the end of the game.

Among tributes, gifts and flowers received by Gretzky was a phone call on Friday from President Bill Clinton and a full-page photo of Gretzky in Sunday's Times captioned "99, The Great One," and below that, simply, "Thank you for 20 great years. Your NHL family."

Although the mass media has not dug into his ethnic roots (to my knowledge), Gretzky himself acknowledged that "I'm Ukrainian." This was back in 1985, at the Plaza Hotel, when I was strolling down a hallway with my husband after arriving early for the Ukrainian Institute of America's "Ukrainian of the Year" banquet (Jack Palance was the honoree). Rounding a corner, we happened upon Gretzky and his hockey associate Mike Krushelnytsky seated on a bench outside a conference room, and we stopped to chat.

Gretzky comes by his Ukrainian ancestry through his father, Walter Gretzky, of Brantford, Ontario. His mother, Phyllis, is of Anglo-Saxon background.

"Flight of the White Bird"

The Yara Arts Group, a resident company of La MaMa Theater in New York's East Village directed by the intrepid Virlana Tkacz, has succeeded once again in bringing to the stage a highly imagistic and multi-disciplinary work. "Flight of the White Bird," inspired by a Ukrainian poem - Oleh Lyseha's "Swan" - was given its world premiere last month at the theater.

Intermingling music, movement, dance, chant and song in a highly stylized form, "Flight of the White Bird" featured the unique music, throat singing and shaman rituals of the Buryat people who live in Siberia near Lake Baikal. The total effect was mesmerizing.

The all-sung work, much of it presented in English, has been called "an exquisite work of art" by theater writer Melinda Guttmann, who attended a work-in-progress version.

The story follows an American in Siberia today who finds herself in the footsteps of a 16th-century Buryat princess. Their worlds and destinies intertwine as a shaman (a priest who uses magic to cure the sick and control events), at the height of his trance, leaves his body and takes flight.

Principal roles were enacted by Yara ensemble members Tom Lee, Donna Ong and Meredith Wright, with members of the Buryat National Theater participating in the "Thunder Dance" that propelled the shaman in his flight.

Traditional Buryat Mongolian music was played on the morin khoor (horse-head fiddle) and limbe (Mongolian flute) by Battuvshin, a master musician and throat singer from Mongolia.

Creative lighting effects transformed a nearly bare stage and a white paper backdrop framed by bare birch saplings into a sometimes mysterious, often entrancing setting.

Based on legends and songs collected last year in the Buryat-Aginsk region, "Flight of the White Bird" was created by Ms. Tkacz, Yara members Tom Lee and Wanda Phipps, and artists of the Buryat National Theater Sayan Zhambalov and Erdeny Zhaltsanov. Music was composed by Genji Ito and Buryat composer Erzhena Zhambalov and designed by Watoku Ueno, with costumes by Luba Kierkosz.

Folk-dance 101

Some 4,000 students of two secondary schools in the exclusive North Shore community of Port Washington on Long Island immersed themselves in ethnic studies recently. Since the class in "Ukrainian Folk Dance 101" demanded only that they observe a 45-minute program of traditional Ukrainian dances and music, they attended with alacrity. Excited by the presentation, they cheered and applauded enthusiastically, and passed the course with honors, in the process absorbing knowledge of Ukraine as a country with a rich cultural heritage.

The two schools were Schriver High School, which hosted the 28-member Syzokryli Ukrainian Dancers of New York and three musicians on March 29, and Weber Middle School, where the dancers and musicians performed the next day before three separate groups, each with hundreds of students and their teachers.

With Andrij Cybyk as emcee, the Syzokryli ensemble presented a welcome dance capped by the presentation of bread and salt, a lively women's dance from the Volyn region of Ukraine, the men's difficult squatting dance "Povzunets," and a traditional folk dance from the Bukovyna region. The ever-popular "Hopak," as a finale, brought wild applause and screams of delight from every one in the audience.

Conceived as a medium for exposing students to various arts and cultures, the program is coordinated by the Cultural Arts Committee (a group of parents from each of six schools) with Port Washington Schools administrator David Meoli in charge.

Syzokryli director Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky was unable to be present, but board member Wasyl Sosiak attended the Weber Middle School performances. According to Mr. Sosiak, "it was enough just to see how warmly and passionately the students greeted our Ukrainian dances. The youngsters really enjoyed the performances, and our dancers felt that excitement, too."

Footloose on Broadway

Jeremy Kushnier, originally from Winnipeg, made his Broadway debut as Ken McCormack in the new musical "Footloose," which opened last October at the Richard Rodgers Theater on West 46th Street.

Mr. Kushnier came to New York by bus from Toronto after performing in both the original Canadian and Canadian touring companies of The Who's "Tommy" and as a swing in the original Canadian company in "Rent." He has also appeared on television in episodes of "FX."

The Ukrainian Weekly columnist/correspondent Orysia Paszczak-Tracz, who tipped us off to Mr. Kushnier, noted that "he's a Ukrainian kid (in his 20s) from Winnipeg, who started dancing with one of the Ukrainian dance groups here." (Thank you, Orysia.) "Dateline" is making an effort to contact the new star for an interview.

The Broadway show, described in publicity materials as "a high-energy musical featuring one of the most popular scores ever written," has music by Tom Snow and lyrics by Dean Pitchford. It was adapted for the stage from the film "Footloose," one of the most popular movies of the 1980s.

The performance schedule is Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2 p.m. and on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Love Riot fans

Former New Yorker Lisa Mathews, lead singer and guitarist for the Baltimore-based folk rock band Love Riot, wrote several of the 12 songs that appear on the group's newly released CD "Heaven Can Wait," including "Anywhere, James" and "I Want You." The CD is available nationally at Borders Books and Music.

Among those partial to Love Riot's romantic music that's part rock and part folk is NBC-TV, which used the song "Smile" from an earlier Love Riot CD, "Maybe She Will," on the February 19 episode of its new drama, "Providence." NBC has used four of the group's songs in its "Homicide: Life on the Streets" series. Last year, Love Riot was written into and appeared in the award-winning Homicide episode "Subway."

Another Love Riot song, "Find Me There," has caught the attention of Paul Levine, director of the upcoming movie "Deal of a Lifetime," starring Jennifer Rubin, Kevin Pollack and Michael Gordjean. The movie will open in the U.S. at year's end after a few months of overseas showings.

Love Riot's video "Sometimes a Feeling" was aired by AMC's Romance Channel and received so much good feedback that the station has asked for more videos.

Ms. Mathews, who started life as Lisa Kruk and grew up in Astoria and Bayside, Queens, is married to musician Miles Anderson. She took her stage name from her brother Mathew. She is a graduate of Hunter College, where she studied English and music.

Orchestral music and arias

The skilled and accomplished talents of conductor Adrian Bryttan and soprano Luba Shchybchyk, who comes from the Lviv area, were warmly received at a recent concert given by the Riverside Orchestra. The performance took place at the Trinity School on the Upper West Side.

Mr. Bryttan, the conductor of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, wielded the baton as the orchestra accompanied Ms. Shchybchyk in the Jewel Song from "Faust" and poignant arias from "Madama Butterfly" and "Il Trovatore." Orchestral interludes and duets from "Don Giovanni" and "Il Trovatore" by Ms. Shchybchyk and New York baritone Elias Mokole contributed depth and variety to the evening.

Before coming to the U.S. last year, Ms. Shchybchyk performed in Lviv and appeared with the Kyiv National Children's Opera Theater, a company that presents complete operas as well as some works for children. She sang leading roles in "La Traviata," "Rigoletto," "The Tsar's Bride," Mozart's "Impresario" and Rachmaninoff's "Aleko" and was often featured as a soloist with orchestras. In this country, she has appeared in a full production of "Butterfly" with the New Rochelle Opera Company and has given concerts in several cities and at Soyuzivka.

Mr. Bryttan, whose work with the New Jersey Youth Symphony can be relished when the symphony appears at Alice Tully Hall on May 16, has been spending a good deal of time in Ukraine of late. He has conducted over a dozen different operas in Lviv and Kharkiv, as well as concerts of the Lviv Philharmonic. In the hope of building a cultural link between the American and Ukrainian musical worlds, he has been bringing U.S. artists to Ukraine to appear with Ukrainian opera companies.

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