Yara Arts Group celebrates Kupalo (07/01/01)

Yara Arts Group celebrates Kupalo

NEW YORK - Yara Arts Group has planned three great events to celebrate Kupalo, the Ukrainian pagan midsummer night in New York City this summer. So far it has presented workshops in Ukrainian ritual midsummer songs with Mariana Sadovska, and an indoor concert celebrating Kupalo. Next the group will present as evening of outdoor midsummer night rituals, songs, poetry and art in a beautiful garden in the heart of New York.

On Saturday and Sunday, June 16-17, Ms. Sadovska conducted workshops in traditional Ukrainian ritual midsummer songs. The workshops were well attended by both Ukrainians and people of other heritages.

Ms. Sadovska, 28, was born in Lviv and worked with Gardzienice Theatre. For the last 10 summers she has been traveling though the villages of Ukraine collecting folk songs and rituals. This year she is Yara's resident artist, appeared in two shows with Yara and conducted a series of workshops in ritual songs that included winter songs, early and late spring songs, as well as midsummer songs.

On Saturday, June 23 Yara presented a concert "New Traditions For Midsummer Night." The evening was held at La MaMa Galleria and began with Odarka Polanskyj Stockert's renditions of traditional Kupalo songs on harp.

Soon the mood shifted from the lyrical to the boisterous when the Budmo Musical Ensemble took over the stage. The group, which includes Valeryi Zhmud on violin, Roman Galynsky on accordion, Mykhailo Gnatyuk on second violin and Petro Gorganyuk on tsymbaly, performed rousing renditions of traditional dance tunes from various regions of Ukraine that were enthusiastically received by the standing-room-only audience.

Then the women of Yara Arts Group led by Ms. Sadovska took over. They included Laura Biagi, Marina Celander, Akiko Hiroshima, Allison Hiroto and Meredith Wright. Their first songs conveyed the magical night atmosphere of Kupalo. The trilling high tones of Ms. Celander's and Ms. Sadovska's calling songs gave way to the powerful solos of Iryna Hrechko and Alla Kutsevych.

Songs from Sweden, Japan and Italy were woven into the presentation of other Kupalo tunes, as was a section by the Experimental Bandura Trio which includes Julian Kytasty, Mike Andrec and Jurij Fedynsky. After their version of "Kupala na Yvana," Yara ended its section by toasting and teaching the audience one of the songs.

Just as it seemed there was no way to top the event, Eugene Hutz, the rocker who put ethno-avant-garde on the map, did just that with a wild short set that included the Budmo musicians and Paula Henderson on baritone sax.

On Friday, July 6, at 8:30 p.m. in the Community Garden at Sixth Street and Avenue B Yara will present "Kupalo Freakout - Midsummer Night Rituals, Songs and Anarchy." The above-mentioned artists will be joined by singer Alexis Kochan from Winnipeg, wreath-maker Roksolana Luchkan, food artist Olesia Lew, film maker Joel Schlemowitz, poet Wanda Phipps, Yara actors Jina Oh and Zabryna Guevara and many others. The event is free.

Yara is a resident company at the internationally renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre and is directed by Virlana Tkacz. For information or to volunteer call (212) 475-6474 or visit the website http://www.brama.com/yara/.

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