Ukrainian Dance: A Broader Perspective

Andriy Nahachewsky. Ukrainian Dance: A Cross-Cultural Approach (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012). ISBN: 978-0-7864-6168-4; USD $55.

Book Review by Andrij Makuch

This is without a doubt the most informative work you can find about Ukrainian dance in any language.

That said, the book under review offers some challenges to the causal reader. Firstly, it is an academic work that uses technical language and employs theoretical constructs. Secondly, it is addressed to an audience interested in dance per se rather than one interested specifically in Ukrainian dance.

But the bottom line is that Ukrainian Dance: A Cross-Cultural Approach provides readers with a vast array of insights into this art form that over time has moved from a village pastime to a stage mainstay.

This work very much reflects the personal and professional history of its author – Andriy Nahachewsky, who holds the Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography at the University of Alberta. It underlines the experience of someone who has lived, loved (the experiential is evident) and learned Ukrainian dance. Starting at a young age, the author went through the dance ranks until he was teaching tantsi several nights a week as a teen and young adult. When he entered the world of academe, he pursued the topic further—and in a very serious way. This end result took well over a decade and a half of effort and reflection.

A revealing indication of the intimate element is the author’s look at “seven specific dances” in an “Examples” subsection near the beginning of the book. We  go through  Pavlo Virsky’s Hopak (ca. 1960); to a 1992 hutsulka in Molodiatyne (near Kolomyia); to a Metelytsia viucha performed in 1931 at the Metropolitan Opera by an ensemble under the directorship of Vasile Avramenko; to a Zinchuk-Romaniuk wedding kolomyika in Edmonton in 1988; to a kvadryl'  (quadrille) performed in Dibrovo-Lemino ca. 1955–59; to a pas de deux from Swan River; and finally, to a a humourous rendition of Iz syrom pryhory (Pyrohy with Cheese), performed by the Sopilka Dancers at the Vegreville Ukrainian Festival in 1998. One does not cobble together such a list by happenchance.

Nahachewsky’s work touches on two broader concerns.  The first is the dull place that Ukrainian dance occupies in the general dance world. The author’s populist viewpoint calls for a more level approach to the evaluation of different types of dance. Beyond this is a recognition that over time, Ukrainian dance has evolved to an elite level and truly deserves greater appreciation.

The second relates to the lofty place that Ukrainian dance occupies in the mental landscape of Ukrainians in North America. In Canada alone, there are well over 250 schools and ensembles, ranging from beginners’ classes to semi-professional groups. Several generations of community figures have been raised in or socialized by their Ukrainian dancing experience. And virtually every active Ukrainian on this continent – at least over a certain age – has at least one direct or semi-direct personal story to relate to Vasile Avramenko (whittling down the proverbial six degrees of separation down to three).

Yet, there has not been a great deal of discussion about dance among Ukrainians here. At one time, there was a semi-regular column (“Kolumn-yika”) in the newspaper of the Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union, Student, and occasionally, pieces might appear on the pages of the newsletters put out by provincial Ukrainian dance associations in the Canadian Prairies.  Nahachewsky steps into this gap with a broadly considered work on Ukrainian dance.

The book is laid out in a very logical manner, although this is not entirely evident from the chapter headings. Reading the “Book Structure” section of the “Preface” is most useful.

In its first part (Chapters 1­­–3), Nahachewsky’s book examines dance per se. The second portion (Chapters 4–7) looks at the question of “vival” dance, which can be categorized broadly as dance done for personal enjoyment. Ukrainian peasant dance very much falls into this category, and is particularly significant in that it provided the source for more formal dance forms at a later time.

The rest of the monograph deals with “reflective dance,” in other words, dances executed with an awareness of the extension of its roots.

Without getting particularly specific about the remainder of the book, we go though national dance, recreational dance, educational folk dance, and finally “spectacular dance,” which ratchets up the entire process and incorporates elements of more formal dance – notably ballet – and takes the art form to Moiseyev, Virsky, and well beyond.

The upshot off all this: we are talking about an extremely broad and very knowledgeable perspective on Ukrainian dance. It should appeal especially to all those interested in Ukrainian dance or Ukrainian cultural dynamics even though its specific target audience is people who study dance.

Andrij Makuch, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Toronto Office.

The Toronto lecture and book launch for “Ukrainian Dance: A Cross-Cultural Approach” by Andriy Nahachewsky will be on Tuesday, 8 May 2012 at 7:30 pm, UNF Community Centre (145 Evans Ave.), sponsored by the UNF Toronto Library and Resource Centre, DESNA Ukrainian Dance Company, and the Ukrainian Women’s Organization of Canada - Toronto Branch.