DATELINE NEW YORK: A trip to a reborn capital city

by Helen Smindak

Have you visited Kyiv lately? There's a simple way to do it: just mosey on over to Fifth Avenue and 79th Street in Manhattan and view the wondrous sights of Ukraine's newly revitalized capital city through the wonders of color photography, TV, radio and video.

Step through the metal-laced glass doors of the Ukrainian Institute of America, walk a few feet into the foyer, click your heels twice, and you're in Kyiv - a city reborn.

Here's a panoramic view of St. Sophia Square and St. Michael's Square, the grand urban space between St. Sophia and St. Michael cathedrals that's traditionally used for festivals and national celebrations, grander now with the recent reconstruction of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Sobor and the monument to St. Olha. And here is the magnificent St. Sophia Cathedral, the oldest extant church in Ukraine, built in 1037 during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise.

As you move through the institute's halls and salons, guide book in hand, look at the images of churches that have been restored (St. Andrew Church, one of the best examples of late Baroque-Rococo interpretation in Kyiv) or are being rebuilt (Rizdvo Khrysta, or Nativity of Christ Church). Note the diversity of religions in Kyiv, exemplified in a series of photos showing Lutheran, Moslem, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Ukrainian Orthodox houses of worship.

There's a monument to Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem, born in Kyiv as Sholom Nachumovych, and a plaque on the building where Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir spent her childhood.

The main railroad station, the "vokzal," has been restored and its new modern South Terminal is airy and spacious. The subway network, the Kyiv Metro, has several new stations, one lined with mosaic portraits of the early rulers of Kyivan-Rus', and impressively long escalators, since most of the Kyiv subway system was built very deep underground.

Walk along Kyiv's newly widened main boulevard, the Khreschatyk, where utility and communication lines have been buried underground, street lighting has been improved and seating furniture has been installed. Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosty), bisected by the Khreschatyk, underwent a major reconstruction in 2001-2002 and is the site of a new monument to Ukrainian independence.

And so on and on - new or revitalized cultural institutions such as Philharmonic Hall, the home of the Kyiv Philharmonic, banks, commercial buildings, schools and academies, hotels, private residences and dining establishments. And, of course, the historic Golden Gates (now under restoration) and the National Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts, which will soon have a new addition and a new major entrance.

Sit down and enjoy the video showing Kyiv 10 years ago, Kyiv under construction and Kyiv today, and reflect on all the changes that have occurred in Ukraine's capital city. Take a look at the product commercials on the TV monitor. Before you depart, note the models of Antonov airplanes (made in Ukraine) hovering above the stairwell, and browse through the Kyiv Yellow Pages, first published in 1992.

In keeping with an exhibit touting a fresh look and new vitality, the Ukrainian Institute of America was spruced up beforehand and exudes a crisp demeanor inside and out. The limestone pinnacles atop the 1899 Fletcher mansion are gleaming; inside, handsome wood beams and panels shine. The walls of the main salon on the second floor, refreshed with a tint of pale green paint, reflect the building's European elegance.

The neo-French Gothic house was recently described in The New York Times by Christopher Gray as "one of the touchstone works of the architect Charles P. H. Gilbert, who ... designed mansions for the leading families of New York."

The Renaissance of Kyiv exhibition, assembled by Ulana Baczynskyj, Zwen Goy and Roman Goy, will remain at the institute to the end of March. It is open daily, except holidays, from noon to 6 p.m. To schedule group tours, contact Ms. Baczynskyj or Ms. Goy at (212) 288-8660 or e-mail uiapress@rccpr.com. Bon voyage!

Art in many phases

• An added attraction at the Ukrainian Institute is a lush exhibit of work by New York artist Luboslav Hutsaliuk - oil paintings reflecting several decades of this artist's work. The beautifully framed paintings, on view in the first-floor library, include impressionistic cityscapes of Paris and New York that exude an optimistic mood, with the composition built on subtle nuances of greys, yellows and pinks and an interplay of light. Some of the oils are painted in predominantly green or red variations.
  
  Born in Lviv in 1923, Mr. Hutsaliuk studied at New York's Cooper Union School of Art. Soon after graduating he went to Paris, where he had his first exhibits. His work has been shown in solo and group shows in France, the United States, Canada, Italy and Japan, and his paintings and prints are in many American and European museums and private collections.
  
  
• The work of New York-based artist Yuri Masnyj, a Cooper Union graduate, is included in a new Los Angeles exhibition "International Paper: Drawings by Emerging Artists," featuring contemporary drawings and works on paper.
  
  The exhibit, which runs through April 27 at UCLA Hammer Museum, shows seven works by Mr. Masnyj. An eighth work, a computer animation, was accomplished in collaboration with his brother Victor, a film editor and motion graphics specialist, and Borys Jarymovych, who works in motion graphics. The Masnyj brothers are the sons of Natalka and Paul Masnyj of Philadelphia.
  
  During the exhibit opening on January 26, Yuri Masnyj was one of three artists who gave talks about their works and answered visitors' questions. Mr. Masnyj's panoramic drawings and digital videos, embracing the genres of portraiture, still life and landscape, are invented worlds populated by a variety of objects that have been displaced from their normal surroundings and arranged in sprawling interior tableaux.

Dancers of renown

• Vladimir Malakhov, a principal artist of American Ballet Theater and principal guest artist of the Vienna State Opera, appeared with premier ballet dancers José Manuel Carreno, Angel Corella and Ethan Steifel in the hourlong PBS performance documentary "Dance in America: Born To Be Wild" (The Leading Men of American Ballet Theater) on February 4. As the documentary explored the dancers' personal backgrounds and formal training, Mr. Malakhov, 35, re-enacted the train ride he took as a 10-year-old when his mother sent him from their home in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, to Moscow to study at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
  
  The stories were framed around the dancers rehearsing a work created for them by Mark Morris. The show concluded with a performance of the seven-minute piece, set to the Fourth Movement of Schumann's Piano Quintet, Op. 44.
  
  Mr. Malakhov, who began his dance training at age 4 in Kryvyi Rih, is noted for his impossibly high leaps, silent landings and melting "tour en l'air." He joined the Vienna State Opera Ballet in 1992 and the National Ballet of Canada in 1994, and made his debut with American Ballet Theater in 1995. Last year he was appointed artistic director and principal dancer of the ballet ensemble of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.
  
  
• For dance buffs interested in the career of Kyiv-born ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950), enshrined as the greatest dancer and one of the most innovative choreographers of the 20th century, there's an exhibit at Lincoln Center that should fill the bill. More than 250 artifacts, assembled from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, as well as from the library's music and theater collections, are on view at the library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at 40 Lincoln Plaza until May 3.

The realm of film

• Film writer and director Lisa Cholodenko of New York has completed her second movie, "Laurel Canyon," starring Frances McDormand and Christian Bale. The film, to be released by Sony Classics this year, is about a freewheeling mother and her conservative son, and cost about $5 million to make.
  
  Ms. Cholodenko, 37, figured it wouldn't be hard to raise funds to make another movie because her first film, "High Art," a low-budget 1998 movie starring Ally Sheedy, was a modest commercial and critical success. "But nobody would put up the money," she told New York Times writer Dana Kennedy during an interview concerning the difficulties faced by women who want to write and direct films.
  
  
• The Kirk Douglas-Michael Douglas-Cameron Douglas movie we told you about recently has been given a permanent name, "All in the Family" (its working title was "A Few Good Years"). The movie, scheduled to be released in April, includes scenes shot at the Ukrainian Institute of America.
  
  
• Making its Hollywood film debut, woodcut artist Jacques Hnizdovsky's print "The Sheep," can be seen in the highly popular, Oscar-nominated film "The Hours," starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman. The print is seen in the film on the wall of Meryl Streep's kitchen.
  
  Stephanie Hnizdovsky, Mr. Hnizdovsky's widow, says she was contacted by the production company of "The Hours" through the Lumley Cazalet Gallery in London two years ago, requesting the use of the Jacques Hnizdovsky/Lumley Cazalet exhibition poster (1969). As copyright owner, she gladly gave permission to use the poster in "The Hours."
  
  
• Jonathan Safran Foer's hilarious first novel, "Everything Is Illuminated," will be made into a movie, and locations for film shoots are presently being scouted in Ukraine by director Liev Schreiber. It will be interesting to see how the novel, focusing on a young Ukrainian travel guide who translates Ukrainian into strict dictionary English as he escorts Mr. Foer to his Jewish ancestors' village, is translated to the movie screen.
  
  
• Sholom Aleichem's Tevye the Dairyman of the fictional village of Anatevka in Ukraine, familiar to us in the Broadway musical "Fiddler on the Roof," is coming to your TV screen in a made-for-TV movie and is also returning to Broadway. On television, "Wonderful World of Disney" will present stage and screen actor Victor Garber as Tevye in "Fiddler"; shooting will take place in Prague. A revival of the musical will open on the Great White Way in the fall with actor Alfred Molino starring as Tevye, a role made famous by Topol and Zero Mostel.

Reading matter

• Bond - James Bond - is agent 007 the creation of British author Ian Fleming, who based the main character in his Bond books on British agent Sidney Riley. A BBC report recently disclosed that Riley's real name was Shlomo Rosenblum, that he was born in Kherson and spent his early years in Odesa. Andrew Cook, researching the history of Britain's special services, declares that documents and photographs prove that Rosenblum comes from the Ukrainian branch of the Rosenblum family that lived in Kherson.
  
  
• Vera Hladun-Goldmann, whose 1998 divorce court coup granted her an equal share of her husband's $84 million fortune (the first time a 50-50 split was achieved in a New York divorce court), tells all about her life with Robert L. Goldman, the chief executive of the Congress Financial Corp., in her book "Separate Ways: Relationships, Divorce, and Independence of Mind" (Sweetpea Press). Since the divorce, the former Rochester, N.Y., salesgirl has hyphenated her name and added an extra "n" to Goldman.
  
  Described in The New York Times by interviewer Robin Finn as "an Armani-clad, Ukrainian-girl-made-good" who owns an 1885 town house and an 18th century London manse, plus period antiques worth $5 million, Ms. Hladun-Goldmann has plans to film a history of Ukraine this summer with help from a close friend, George Carey, the British documentarian.
  
  
• Virlana Tkacz, Sayan Zhambalov and Wanda Phipps have co-authored a book describing a fascinating ritual of the Buryats, an indigenous people who live near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. Published by Parabola Press of New York, "Shanar: Dedication Ritual of a Buryat Shaman in Siberia," gives a detailed, intimate account of the ritual known as Shanar, used to initiate, dedicate and celebrate the calling of a shaman ( priest). A book-signing event will be held at Tibet House on March 6.
  
  The book has been lauded for its rich collection of photographs, new translations of Buryat myths and chants, and insightful narrative description. Ms. Tkacz, founder and director of the Yara Arts Group at La Mama Experimental Theater, and her co-authors have been translating Buryat poetry into English since 1996. Their translations, performed at the La Mama Experimental Theatre and the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in New York, have been published by Agni Review, Terra Nova, Two Lines and Shaman's Drums.
  
  
• Writer Cathy Horyn reminisces about two grandmothers in her story "The Granny Dress," which appeared in The New York Times magazine on February 16, but says she gained comfort from her grandmother Anna - "a woman of enormous energy, who at one point owned a bar in Cleveland and spent her Saturdays serving up borscht at the Ukrainian workers hall."

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

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 23, 2003, No. 8, Vol. LXXI

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