DATELINE NEW YORK: Facets of Ukrainian culture (05/19/96)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Facets of Ukrainian culture

by Helen Smindak

Petrykivka, Mriya, Mykolayiv and Suzirya may sound like faraway places with strange-sounding names, but they represent unique and vibrant facets of Ukrainian culture. Once encountered, they remain indelibly etched in our memories.

Petrykivka is a type of folk wall-painting, marked by elaborate and decorative designs, that has been practiced for generations in the village of Petrykivka in the Dnipropetrovske region, the Kozak homeland in Ukraine. The stylized or naturalistic designs, used mainly on the large clay stoves that were a basic feature of Ukrainian peasant homes, were also used to adorn the space between windows, the wall above the bed, the ceiling and the beams. Petrykivka art was recently unveiled in New York in an exhibit of work by one of its leading exponents, Andriy Pikush of Ukraine.

Suzirya is the name of a new type of theater in which Ukraine's leading actors and directors participate according to their availability. It could very well be called the "theater of the stars," which explains the name Suzirya (from "zorya," the Ukrainian word for star). As the Ukrainian entry in the second Eastern European Theater Festival, Kyiv's Suzirya Theater made its New York debut at April's end with an electric interpretation of a play written by Karol Wojtyla.

Mykolayiv, a Black Sea port located at the mouth of the Buh River, near Kherson, is a ship-building center and the locale of one of the first archeological museums in Ukraine. A military closed zone until 1991, it is the home of the Mriya Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. Re-christened the Black Sea Ukrainian Dance Ensemble for its first North American tour, the troupe is currently criss-crossing the Eastern and Midwestern states and several Canadian provinces.

Here are the details.

Petrykivka painting

In an exhibit that ran for two weeks this month at the Mayana Gallery on Second Avenue, paintings by master artist Andriy Pikush revealed the brilliant colors and incomparable designs of traditional Petrykivka decorative art. They focused on fine-line floral and leaf patterns (sunflowers, poppies, daisies and cornflowers) and birds (roosters, turkeys, cuckoos and peacocks), with accents of berries, wines and wheat stalks. The paintings ranged in price from $50 for a 6-by-9-inch piece to $300 for a 22-by-28-inch work.

Mr. Pikush, who heads the Petrykivka Association of Creative Artists, which he organized in 1991, was present at the May 3 opening and delivered a brief lecture/demonstration on Petrykivka art.

The technique of Petrykivka-style painting, always utilizing bright colors on a white ground, has been handed down from mother to daughter, he said. Originally, natural colors made from beets, raspberries, onion skins and other organic materials were used in Petrykivka decorations. Traditional symbols were generally employed, with each artist using an individual method of application and a variety of implements (a feather or homemade brush of cattail, reeds or straw wisps).

Wielding a fine brush dipped in a mixture of egg and tempera paint, Mr. Pikush showed his technique and artistry. With a few quick strokes of his brush tip he outlined a cuckoo bird, filled in color with the side of his brush, then added berries and flower petals with curls of paint from a finger tip. A few fine brush strokes, creating vine tendrils, completed the demonstration. It was evident to viewers that this free-hand artistry required a superior sense of balance and composition.

Mayana director Slava Gerulak called attention to the fact that the figures and symbols employed in Petrykivka art work had ritual significance as well as aesthetic value.

The evening's program included bandura selections by Lavrentia Turkewicz and a reading by poet Leonid Fedoruk of Kyiv from his newly published book of poems, "Sertsetrus" (Heartquake). Mr. Fedoruk, who is the deputy head of the Press Center of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, has given readings of his poetry in Philadelphia, at the Ukrainian National Association office in Jersey City, N.J., and at New York's 75th anniversary celebration of the Ukrainian Free University.

Mr. Pikush, born in 1950 in Petrykivka, attended the Children's Art School there and studied at the Dnipropetrovske State Art College. Since 1972, he has sought to revive the authentic traditions of Petrykivka folk art, combining his work in the creative arts with his activity as an instructor. He has nurtured a number of talented folk artists; at the present time, the village of Petrykivka boasts some 30 decorative art specialists.

Solo exhibits of Mr. Pikush's work have been held in Dnipropetrovske, Kyiv, Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg; in the U.S., he has exhibited in Philadelphia and Rochester, N.Y. He has participated in more than 60 art exhibits in France, Japan, Canada and Eastern Europe.

Mr. Pikush's works are found in the collections of several Ukrainian museums, including Dnipropetrovske, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kyiv and Lviv.

Mykolayiv's Black Sea dancers

The Black Sea Ukrainian Dance Ensemble hit the stage of Manhattan's High School of Art and Design on May 5 with a whirlwind of high-speed movement and dazzling colors.

Performing twice on the same day, this group of 32 men and women from Mykolayiv displayed amazing energy as they moved from one fast-paced dance to another.

A combination of captivating floor patterns, stunning costumes and a tremendous amount of joie de vivre marked the performances.

The choreography is reminiscent of Virsky work, yet with fresh interpretations, most of it the work of the troupe's artistic director, Victor Osypov. Mr. Osypov is also a highly talented comedic performer who appeared as a leading soloist in several dances.

Since the ensemble's home is close to Zaporizhzhia and Kozak country, it was not surprising that many of the dances had to do with Kozak life - in marches, military games, sword play, and plenty of aerial spins and squat-kicking steps. Other dances portrayed folk traditions and village scenes, some of them flirtatious, some humorous.

Although the dancers' costumes are stylized, they created a powerful visual impact, from the red-and-white scheme of the opening "Kozak March" to the rich palette of burgundy, gold and dark blue of Poltava apparel in another Kozak number.

In some dances, gold embroidery and short jackets in women's costumes and wide bands of embroidery on men's shirt sleeves were recognized as typical to Mykolayiv regional styles.

Costume accessories were used to striking effect in several routines. In "The Water Well," a lyrical portrayal of a gathering at the village well, the women stretched floral-printed red shawls behind them at shoulder height as though carrying buckets of water on a wooden carrier.

Flowing capes were brought into play by male dancers in a scene that mimicked Kozaks on horseback leaving for battle. Worn as wind-blown garments by bobbing male dancers, the capes also provided surprise concealment for a line of women dancers.

Two deficiencies marred the performances. One was the recorded music, which repressed spontaneity and any improvising. The other was the lack of a good-sized audience, something that performers need for their spirits (and their pockets). Are New Yorkers over-saturated with overseas groups, uncaring or simply too busy? Was the advance publicity insufficient?

Sponsored by Air Ukraine and the Mykolayiv State Ship Building Concern, the Black Sea ensemble was brought here by Cleveland impresario Leonid Oleksiuk, who coordinated earlier tours of the Cherkasky Kozaky and the Hopak Dance Ensemble of Kyiv. Mr. Oleksiuk, who expects to bring the famed Virsky company to these shores in 1997, said he looked forward to establishing contacts here for ship building in Ukraine.

The Black Sea Ukrainian Dance Ensemble is scheduled to appear in the metropolitan New York area on June 5, in Uniondale, N.Y., (theater to be announced) before returning to Ukraine.

Theater of stars

Experimental theater appears to be the trend in the Ukrainian theater world, and the latest representation of this movement was exhibited here recently by two of Kyiv's leading stage and screen actors, Larysa Kadyrova and Serhiy Djigourda.

The two stars made up the cast of Ukraine's entry in the Eastern European Theater Festival, initiated last year in New York as a means of building a bridge between European and American cultures. They appeared at the Players Forum on East 91st Street in a three-act play, "The Radiance of Fatherhood," a dialogue with God written by Pope John Paul II when he was still young Karol Wojtyla.

Presented in Ukrainian, the play was given three performances during the festival.

As Joseph and Mary, Mr. Djigourda and Ms. Kadyrova gave powerful and moving performances in a drama that attempted to define the relationship between two people: father and child, man and woman, mother and child.

Ms. Kadyrova explained later that the play provided a forum to speak about who we are. "God is in us, or around us; how do we experience this? What is faith, birth, piety?"

Working in and around the frame of a small hut built of two-by-fours, assisted by ethereal lighting, silhouetted images and low background music composed by Mykhaylo Chemberzhi, the barefoot actors created intense, emotionally charged scenes. For the most part, their costumes were yards of cloth, worn as togas or robes, or a burlap caftan.

This staging, directed by Oleksiy Kuzhelny, received first and second prizes at a drama competition in Kyiv during the 1992-1993 season, and won the gold medal at the International Theater Festival in Amman, Jordan, in 1995. Well received by Ukrainian drama critics, the play has had successful runs in Holland and Russia, and on Ukrainian television.

Mr. Djigourda is known as an actor and a performer of original songs that carry a political message. Tall, lanky and bearded, he was physically suited for his role in "The Radiance of Fatherhood," by turns distraught, violent, standing on his head, posturing like a goat and a rooster, or quietly placing sprigs of flowers in Mary's hair.

Ms. Kadyrova, a former leading actress of the Zankovetska Theater in Lviv, is a member of the Ivan Franko National Thea-ter in Kyiv. She has appeared in the films "Seventh Bullet," "Famine-33" and "The Story of Mme. Yivha." As Mary in the Wojtyla play, she was a gentle counterpoint to Mr. Djigourda's character; she wept, grieved, crooned a lullaby, experienced the agony of childbirth, played joyously with water, stood silent and enraptured.

Other festival entries included theater groups from Poland, Russia and New York. The American contribution, "The Mutants," a play by Simon Zlotnikov, involved a leading member of the Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv, Oleh Drach, now on an extended stay in New York.

Sponsored by Kyiv businessman Vasyl Hladkyj, the Suzirya Theater received assistance during its visit from Dr. Ilarion Cholhan and his wife, Svitlana, of Brooklyn and Prof. Yuriy Tarnawsky of Columbia University.

| Home Page |