DATELINE NEW YORK: The Ukrainian dance company that sings (11/26/00)

DATELINE NEW YORK: The Ukrainian dance company that sings

by Helen Smindak

It is popularly billed as the Veriovka Ukrainian National Dance Company, but this troupe not only dances, it sings - and sings mightily, or very softly (as the music warrants) - and plays folk instruments as well. The troupe is from Kyiv and it has been awarded the state seal of approval (thus, the "national" designation), but, it started life in Kharkiv in 1943 under composer/conductor Hryhorii Veriovka's direction as the Ukrainian State Chorus - a mixed chorus, dance troupe and folk orchestra in one entity.

In its second cross-country tour of the United States and three stops in Canada, the 80-member Veriovka company arrived in the New York area during the November 10-12 weekend, dropping in at the Tilles Center at Long Island University, the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts and the Lehman Center Concert Hall in the Bronx. The troupe's presentation, which has reportedly won great favor with audiences and critics across the country, drew a response here that included, by turns, wild applause, cheers, bravos and a few sentimental tears.

Veriovka continues to be a folk-oriented collective that combines choral singing, dancing and instrumental music in its repertoire. During its 1996 tour, the company used its original name - the Veriovka Ukrainian National Choral and Dance Company. The name is rather unwieldy and doesn't lend itself well to ads and flyers, or perhaps tour promoters hoped to spur attendance by honing in on dance, which generally appeals to wider audiences. These considerations may have led to the rather misleading "dance" label.

Though Veriovka does not mount huge production dance numbers in the manner of Virsky and Moiseyev, its dancers executed some admirable footwork and choreography. The orchestra performed splendidly on its own and in combination with the dancers and chorus (except for moments here and there when the musicians tended to drown out the chorus). But the company's ultimate triumph lies in its singing - in the glorious and harmonious blending of voices in treasured Ukrainian songs, in the women's lyrical vocalizing, and in the incredibly deep bass voices that only Ukraine produces.

Unlike the earlier tour, which included a Negro spiritual and a composition by the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov, this production turned out to be an all-Ukrainian creation, colorfully embellished with striking costumes of the Poltavschyna, Hutsulschyna, Podillia and Zakarpattia regions, and the traditional garb of the Zaporozhian Kozaks. Small wonder that The New York Times' Jack Anderson, who took in the Brooklyn Center action, described the performance as "a theatrical excursion through Ukraine from one village festival to another." (Mr. Anderson's complimentary though brief article was tucked among other critiques in the Times' November 16 "Dance in Review" column.)

In the program at Lehman Hall, with artistic director Anatoly Avdyevsky at the helm, the chorus poured soul and spirit into the patriotic song from Ukraine's past "Oy, u Luzi Chervona Kalyna" (The Red Guelder Rose) and the majestic "Reve ta Stohne Dnipr Shyrokyi" (The Broad Dnieper Roars and Moans), set to the words of Ukraine's national bard, Taras Shevchenko.

Offsetting the melancholy strain of these works later in the program, the chorus offered the merry folk song "I Shumyt i Hude" (It's Thundering Outside), about a young woman waiting for her boyfriend. A lively excerpt from Volodymyr Zubitsky's choral work "O My Mountains" imitated the sounds of the drymba, a tiny lyre-shaped metallic instrument that produces a twanging sound when held between the teeth and plucked with the forefinger.

The women's chorus, as a solo ensemble or providing accompaniment for some of the dances, was notable for its use of "bilyi holos" or white voice, a colorless voice with a full, throaty, almost primitive way of projecting the voice that is favored by Ukrainian village women. For their part, the men gave a resounding performance of the dramatic poem "Baida," celebrating Kozak Baida's heroic deeds in battle through Hnat Khotkevych's music.

A quartet of handsome young fellows charmed the audience with a rendition of the humorous ditty "Zaspivaimo Pisniu Veselenku" (Let's Sing a Merry Song); one singer held the final note for almost a full minute as his buddies gaped in mock astonishment.

The festival atmosphere that impressed Mr. Anderson was most prominent in dramatic suites performed by the combined chorus, orchestra and dance ensemble. In the opening suite, songs, dances and costumes from various Ukrainian provinces filled the stage with a riot of color. Other musical-choreographic sketches portrayed a Ukrainian "yarmarok," or fair, or showed the Zaporozhian Kozaks in battle and at play, as described in Mykola Hohol's novel "Taras Bulba."

A scene from Yevhen Stankovych's opera "Kvit Paporoty" (The Fern is Blooming) focused on picturesque rituals performed by young women during Ivan Kupalo festivities. The Hopak dance, the customary finale to a Ukrainian performance, opened - untraditionally - with a bevy of women dancers holding floral garlands as they moved gracefully across the stage.

For all their leaping and twirling, the male dancers did not reach the heights achieved by the women, whose delicate, precise stepping was exquisite. As they moved through a Carpathian dance, a Kozachok or an airy pastel-tinted ballet, the women often appeared to glide and float across the stage. All the dancers (and half the chorus members), we learned later, were newcomers to the company; quite possibly the male soloists had not had time to perfect those very difficult maneuvers - somersaults, backflips and other acrobatic stunts - expected of them.

Between choral and dance numbers, the orchestra presented such high-spirited numbers as "Ukrainian Rhapsody," an amalgam of variations on Ukrainian themes that appear in Liszt and Brahms compositions. For this piece, soloist Vasyl Vatamanyuk went to town on the tsymbaly, an ancient Ukrainian stringed instrument that's related to the xylophone and played by hitting the strings with small hammers. Providing an introduction to a choral number, the national instrument of Ukraine - the bandura - won its turn in the spotlight, although the musician/singer was not identified in the program.

Mr. Avdyevsky, as artistic director and chief conductor, choreographer Olexiy Homon and orchestra conductor Stanyslav Savchuk received a number of floral tributes, including a bouquet and good wishes from the Dumka Chorus of New York, presented by Olha Hayetsky, Yuriy Shtohryn and Halyna Yaremko. Veriovka responded at the end of the show with the musical wish "U Nas i u Vas, Khai Bude Harazd" (May Everything be Well with You and With Us).

Columbia Artists Management and its president, Andrew S. Grossman, are to be commended for importing Veriovka to North America. However, they should also be encouraged to provide program notes that offer more than names of selections and music/choreography credits (as was the case in the Brooklyn Center program). The Lehman Center program, with brief explanatory notes, was also insufficient; accurate explanations of songs and dances (and such rarities as white voice) would greatly enhance viewers' enjoyment of the show.

For many who attended the Veriovka performances, two other considerations remain in mind. The liturgical prayer "Bozhe Velykyi, Yedynyi" (O Great and Almighty God) is a beautiful hymn worthy of inclusion in any Ukrainian program, but why did it replace Ukraine's national anthem at the start of the show, alongside "The Star-Spangled Banner"? And is there any solution to unannounced program changes that leave viewers confused and befuddled as they search through concert programs for a clue as to what's happening on stage?

Helen Smindak's e-mail address: HaliaSmindak@aol.com.

| Home Page |