Ukrainian Hopak to be featured during Olympic ceremonies (02/03/02)

Ukrainian Hopak to be featured during Olympic ceremonies

PROVO, Utah - Viewers will need to keep a sharp eye on the various ceremonies during the Olympics in Salt Lake City, because they may just catch a glimpse of swirling ribbons and flying leaps in the Ukrainian Hopak.

Colleen N. West, assistant professor, World Dance Division, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, has reported that The International Folk Dance Ensemble from BYU will perform at the Olympics - and its repertoire includes Ukrainian members.

The ensemble, affiliated with the dance department in the College of Health and Human Performance, comprises 15 women and 15 men who come from all backgrounds and majors. Some of the dancers are dance majors, but many major in political science, international finance, linguistics, zoology, health science, law, accounting, etc.

In order to be a member of the group, a student must be a full-time student with a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Edwin Austin is director of the group participating in the Olympics, which is called the Performing Arts Company. There are also five other folk dance teams with 16 couples in each group. The faculty who manage these 190 students, are Ms. West, Delynne Peay, Jeannette Geslison and Tara Christopher. Ms. West is the costume research and design coordinator for all the costumes.

The group does dances from all over the world, but, according to Ms. West, their Ukrainian section always is the signature piece of its shows and most loved by audiences.

There will be a special program called "Light of the World" sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The performance will be presented every night in the Conference Center during the Olympics. The Ukrainian culture will be one of the many highlighted and many of the students are involved in this huge production.

The folk dance ensemble has been asked to perform the Hopak and Irish step dancing at the Medals Plaza on February 18 from 6:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. NBC will televise this performance. The dancers will also be in the opening ceremonies involving American clogging, Ukrainian and Irish dance numbers.

On January 29 at noon the dancers have been asked to do a half-hour show - with Ukrainian numbers specifically requested - for the athletes at the Olympic Village.

They will also be dancing the Hopak at the Tabernacle Park in Provo on February 14 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. At Washington Square at the County City Building, where the Salt Lake City Corporation will sponsor an Olympic Celebration, the folk dance ensemble has been asked to do a half hour show on February 21 at 5:45 p.m. Of course, Ukrainian again was requested.

"This is craziness, but yet, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It all begins in a couple of weeks. It's hard to believe," said Ms. West.

Ms. West grew up in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. Her mother hails from Athabasca, Alberta, where her family, the Waschuks, emigrated from Datyn, northwest of Kovel in Volyn, western Ukraine, in the early 1900s. At the time, "land was 160 acres for $10, of course, it was solid bush," Ms. West related.

West is the recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award, from the College of Health and Human Performance at BYU (1998-1999). Her research interests are ethnic costume design, Ukrainian dance, music and costumes, and history of choreography of rhythm tap dance.

Along with being a choreographer, Ms. West designed Poltava-region Hopak costumes for the male and female dancers of the ensemble. She received a research grant from the college to conduct research on culture, costumes and dance history during a folk arts tour of Ukraine in August 2000.

| Home Page |