Performing
Ukrainian Music, Dance and Festival in
By
Andrij Makuch
A very interesting look at Ukrainian dance
and, to a lesser extent, Ukrainian music was offered recently in
Ms. Ostashewski focused
primarily on the manner in which Ukrainian dance was portrayed on the Festival
stage, noting that this sort of event “is a uniquely charged space, a prime
site for investigating continuing reconfigurations of identity, community and
nation.” She added that Vegreville, an hour’s drive east of
The discussion then moved
on to questions regarding narrative and tropes (i.e., archetypes). The speaker
referred to the observations of Celeste Ray about North American manifestations
of Scottish heritage as an assemblage of “idealised simulacra,” “one of
the changeable forms which people have come to claim and/or reclaim and
identify with ancestors and others in the present.” She then displayed a
programme booklet cover from the 2002 Pysanka Festival, which provided a photo
of a somewhat idealised group of Ukrainian Canadians that had been “assembled
in order to represent Ukrainian identity in Western Canada based on elements of
culture that have generally been accepted as markers of that culture and
heritage.” In other words, the image was a particular variant of the idealised simulacra
identified by Ray.
The speaker moved on from
Scottish representations in heritage productions to the manner in which a
Ukrainian background is presented at the Pysanka Festival. She noted that in
particular, the image of the Ukrainian Cossack and the Ukrainian Canadian pioneer
dominated the discourse, respectively in regard to dance and music.
The singular place of the
Cossack in Ukrainian lore and dance presentation in
This image is augmented on
stage by variant music and gendered performance. For example, a male “Cossack”
dancer is commonly accompanied by militaristic music with a strong rhythm and
often the addition of horn flourishes. The music accompanying a maiden, in
contrast, is usually in a higher register, often played by flutes. The common
dance stance for a male Cossack has him solidly in place, a wall effect
“achieved by doing things like standing with feet planted firmly apart [and]
shoulders back” in addition to clapping in a broad manner to accentuate this
stance. In contrast, a “maiden” is usually relegated to a tightly-held stance
and to clapping with her hands held close to the body. Moreover, women are
commonly called upon to “shape” their bodies, specifically to tilt their heads
or bend their shoulders toward their male partners. Men tend to maintain an
entirely upright posture. Such movement characterisations clearly emphasize
Cossack (masculine) virility and the femininity of the maiden.
Ms. Ostashewski also spoke
briefly (due to time constraints) about the trope of the Ukrainian Canadian
Prairie pioneer. She noted that the pioneer image is performed mainly though
music and, in marked contrast to the Cossack image on display at the Festival,
has a specifically Canadian context that is commonly conveyed through female
images. She urged the audience to look at the gendering of this archetype by
reading Frances Swyripa’s Wedded to the Cause: Ukrainian Canadian Women and
Ethnic Identity, 1891–1991 (1993).
In conclusion, the speaker
reiterated that the Festival and its cultural performance are a means for
people to “negotiate Ukrainianess in
A lively question and
answer session followed, with the changing nature of the rural Ukrainian
festival in the Canadian Prairies constituting part of the discussion.
This event was the first
installment in a “Professor Ed Burstynsky Memorial Lecture Series” to be held
at St. Vladimir Institute between this fall and next spring. It will focus on
Ukrainian Canadian topics and is intended to honour the memory of the late