Panorama of Ukrainian culture in the Big Apple (12/25/83)

Panorama of Ukrainian culture in the Big Apple

by Helen Perozak Smindak

It's Christmastime

It's Christmastime, and the Big Apple has turned into a wondrous shimmering ornament reflecting the glow of Christmas tree lights all over town - at Rockefeller Plaza, the World Trade Center and the United Nations, on Fifth Avenue and along the Park Avenue mall, in shop windows and doorways, and on trees and shrubs in front of homes.

There's the added twinkle of lights from 35 trees around the five boroughs, including the City Hall Christmas tree, all decorated by the Parks Department, which plans to keep the lights on until January 19 in observance of the Ukrainian Christmas season.

Colored lights twinkle in the Ukrainian shops, restaurants, schools and institutions in Manhattan's East Village. Last weekend, along with visits by St. Nicholas to the Plast Center and the Ukrainian Studies School at the Ukrainian Liberation Front Home, the annual lighting of Christmas trees was held by two organizations - the Regional Council of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America and the women's committee of the local Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine. The ODFFU "yalynka," dedicated to Ukrainian children in Ukraine, stands on the second-floor setback at 136 Second Ave.

The UNWLA Christmas tree, a memorial to the Ukrainian women political prisoners in the Soviet Union, gleams from the outdoor balcony at 98 Second Ave. The tree-lighting program, with carol singing, was arranged by Regional Council president Lydia Magun.

Another point sparkling color is the Christmas tree which greets the eyes of visitors to the Ukrainian Institute Fifth Avenue at 79th Street. It was trimmed by college students on the morning of December 10, just in time for the annual St. Andrew's frolic. Coordinated by Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn and Slava Gerulak, the event included a talk on St. Andrew's Eve customs by Miss Gerulak, ritual songs by Lavrentia Turkewicz and Eugene Tylawsky as they accompanied themselves on the bandura and guitar, and fortune-telling, caroling and fun for everyone.

Christmas celebrations were held this month at the Ukrainian Institute by the New York branches of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and the Ukrainian Engineers' Society. For senior Ukrainian citizens of Metropolitan New York, the institute's Community Services Committee, headed by Lydia Savoyka, hosted a Christmas party on December 17. Caroling, traditional Ukrainian Christmas foods and pleasant socializing filled the afternoon program.

This past week, the institute calendar called for a depiction of "Christmas Around the World," including the Christmas customs, carols and foods of many nations.

In tune with the season, The Ukrainian Museum invited members and friends to a pre-Christmas reception on December 10. Handmade Christmas ornaments brightened the museum's workshop/auditorium, which was so crowded there was hardly room to move. Party planners managed to serve all comers with cups of hot borshch, tasty pyrizhky, sweets and coffee. An ensemble of bandura players directed by Volodymyr Yurkewych offered a medley of carols, and everyone lifted up their voices in the reverential Christmas carol "Boh Predvichnyi." Among those greeting guests or serving refreshments were Dr. Bohdan Cymbalisty, Maria Shust, Lubow Wolynetz, Lydia Firchuk-Hajduczok, Daria Bajko and Joseph Danko.

Mrs. Hajduczok, the museum's PR director, showed a visitor an attractive note card, just received from Switzerland, bearing a lovely blue-and gold cover. On the back of the card, in English, French and Spanish texts, were the words: "Embroidered detail from a reproduction of a ritual cloth (rushnyk) XVII c., Kiev area. Courtesy of The Ukrainian Museum New York (U.S.A.) to benefit the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)."

Christmas services

Four New York Ukrainian parishes celebrate Christmas today. They include the Ukrainian Baptist Church at 151 Noble St. in Brooklyn's Greenpoint section, which will hold its Christmas service at 1 p.m. The others are St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, 261 19th St., Brooklyn (pastor, the Rt. Rev. Januarius Izzo); St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Catholic Church, 97-06 87th St., Ozone Park, Queens (pastor, the Very Rev. Lubomyr Mudry), and the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 48-26 171st St., Fresh Meadows, Queens (pastor, Msgr. Emil Manastersky).

Bells a-ringing

Everywhere you go in December, the enchanting sound of "Carols of the Bells" rings out - in department stores, on the airwaves and in television commercials, at Radio Music City Hall, even at office parties. The popular carol, originally a Ukrainian New Year's carol or "shchedryk" which extends wishes for a bountiful year, provides background music for an Andre Champagne commercial and also figures prominently in a current TV commercial for Izod Lacoste knit shirts. On a recent Sunday, the carol backed the closing credits of WABC-TV's late-night newscast, anchored by Mark Haines.

WRFM Stereo 105 includes choral and instrumental arrangements of "Carol of the Bells" in its Christmas season programming. Heard during the past week were Percy Faith's arrangement of "Carol of the Bells," Boris Brolt's "Ring, Christmas Bells," and the Buckingham Strings' version, "Ring, Christmas Strings." This weekend, WRFM and Rock Resorts are presenting these arrangements and others by the Jay Welch Chorale and Sven Libaek in 30 hours of uninterrupted holiday music.

A New York family which enjoys WRFM's music sent a holiday gift of two Ukrainian records to the station. Now they're hoping their favorite classical and pop music radio station will give "shchedryk" a spin and air other Ukrainian carols as well from the recordings by the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of Detroit and Montreal's Cheremshyna vocal ensemble (a new Yevshan Records release).

On December 15, "Carol of the Bells" was interspersed through the Christmas music played by harpist Peggy Dolan Dabrowski for the enjoyment of some 400 interior designers and architects attending the annual Christmas party of S. M . Hexter & Co., an uptown New York firm noted for its wall coverings, fabrics and custom furniture. The carol, the harp and the pretty musician, who said her harp teacher had two Ukrainian students (one of whom is Natalka Olynyk of Irvington, N.J.), made a lovely addition to the elegant showroom and the festive throng.

Tea at Tiffany's

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is the title of a whimsical romantic movie which starred actress Audrey Hepburn. For petite ballet student Nina Bachinska, who is dancing the role of Marie in the New York City Ballet production of "The Nutcracker," a fanciful tea at Tiffany's was a recent exhilarating experience.

Eleven-year-old Nina was seen in a CBS television news story spotlighting holiday table settings at the famed Tiffany & Co. jewelry store on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Nina and her Nutcracker Prince (Matthew Usmann Webber) appeared in their Nutcracker costumes in a fireside vignette inhabited by dolls, a clown, a teddy bear and a wooden horse. The sitting, planned by Mrs. Sid R. Bass and titled "Children's Tea After The Nutcracker," included a Tiffany sterling silver teapot (for hot chocolate), Tiffany earthenware and sterling table accessories, and Tiffany gifts beneath a tree trimmed with pinecones, cranberries, popcorn, gingerbread people, candy canes and table settings designed by such famous hostesses as Angela Lansbury and Estee Lauder will be on view at Tiffany's through December 31, little Miss Bachinska was there for one appearance only. She's busy with her role as Marie in Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker," which has her on stage throughout the whole production, three or four times a week. The New York Times' dance critic Jennifer Dunning, who saw "The Nutcracker" on December 15, wrote that Nina and two other students of the School of American Ballet who are the three leads in one of the two children's casts in the ballet, added "a special sweetness" to the production.

The daughter of artist Olenka Bohachevsky Bichinska and church painter and iconographer Volodymyr Bachinsky of Woodstock, N.Y., Nina will appear in "The Nutcracker" on December 27 and 29 and in the matinee and evening performances on December 31. On January 1, Nina and the Prince will be heard on WNCN-FM Radio (104.3) in a taped interview with John Gruen of "Sound of Dance at 11:30 p.m.

Jewels for Christmas

New York City Ballet dancer Roma Sosenko gave an outstanding performance in the company's revival of Balanchine's "Jewels" on November 23. In her premiere performance in the ballet's first act, "Emeralds," Miss Sosenko danced the pas de trois with Jean-Pierre Frohlich and Miriam Mahdaviani, and appeared with the principal dancers in the ballet's finale.

Costumed like the other dancers in emerald green and white, with a jeweled coronet on her head, she moved with precision and clarity, capturing the vision of serenity which Balanchine saw in emerald jewels. Miss Sosenko, who is in the corps de ballet, will be dancing with the company through the winter season, which ends February 19.

"Emeralds" is set to music by Gabriel Faure, from "Pelleas et Melisande" and "Shylock." Opening the ballet, it is followed by "Rubies" set to Stravinsky music, and "Diamonds," set to Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 in D Major. The costumes by Oscar-winning costume designer Barbara Karinska carry through the jewel motif in the three ballets with strong emphasis or jeweled decoration.

Lords a-leaping

High-flying Kozak dancers and a colonial-style restaurant reminiscent of the country inn featured in the Bing Crosby film classic "White Christmas" might not seem to be compatible. Surprisingly, they blend very well, particularly during the holiday season.

The Bulava Ensemble of Toronto, with four dancers in bright-red balloon trousers accompanied by a four-man orchestra, made its second trip to Long Island this year, stopping off at the Island Squire Inn in Middle Island from November 29 to December 3. In an exciting cabaret act, "The Spirit of the Cossacks," presented as a tribute to the legendary fighting Kozaks of Ukraine, the dancers performed Ukrainian song and dances, and explored contemporary sound with songs written and arranged by members of the company.

The men of Bulava (which means mace), were equally adept at sword play, leaping and somersaulting in the air, and playing pan flutes, tin whistles and tsymbaly. In a comic turn that brought down the house, the four-man trope (in dark glasses) gave patrons an idea of what Kozaks might look like doing softshoe, rock and roll, and pop dancing.

John Holuk, Roman Mychaluk, Ales Polachek and Walter Teres were the dancing stars, with music by Roman Chabursky, the musical coordinator, Michael Monis, guitar, Dave Monis, drums, and Armando Carare, accordion.

Entrees provided by the chef especially for the Bulava engagement included holubtsi, pyrohy, kovbasa and sauerkraut, and patychky (shish-kabob), with caviar, herring with sour cream and borshch for starters. Among the bar offerings were such fanciful concoctions as Dancing Kozak, Ukrainian Winter, Flaming Saber and Frozen Baba.

Bulava is planning a Canada-wide spring tour, beginning with a February 11 appearance in Kingston, Ont., that will include two American stops - Philadelphia on March 17 and New York on March 18.

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