Arkan Dance Company brings Hopak to Taiwan (10/27/96)

Arkan Dance Company brings Hopak to Taiwan

by Yuriy Diakunchak

TORONTO - Where is the last place you would expect to see a performance of the Hopak or a rousing Kolomiyka? If you guessed Taiwan, you're out of luck.

This July, the Toronto-based Arkan Dance Company took the International Folklore Festival on this distant island state by storm. Danovia Stechishin-Stefura, Arkan's artistic director, said the trip was a success.

"We were told to expect that (the Taiwanese) would be restrained," she said. But the group took the extra effort of learning how to sing "It's a Small World" in Mandarin and the audience loved it. "People sang with us. They went nuts. We were one of the only groups who were always asked back for encores."

According to Ms. Stechishin-Stefura, the audience enjoyed the Kozak dances. Some audience members told her it reminded them of kung-fu, a martial art practiced in Taiwan.

The dancers also inadvertently endeared themselves to the audience by carrying the Taiwanese flag during one number. "They loved that we carried the flag because it is not officially recognized by the world," said Ms. Stechishin-Stefura. (Some readers may remember that during the Summer Olympics a Taiwanese national was ejected from a table tennis competition for waving his country's flag. Representatives of Communist China lodged the complaint against him.)

Arkan's hosts, the local branch of the Lion's Club, made a great impression on Arkan dancer Ivan Oleksiuk-Baker, 18. "They tried to make the group comfortable and happy. They showered us with gifts. I think that touched us all very much. We appreciated their company, their generosity," he said.

The Lion's Club members took the group on excursions and held receptions for them. At one such reception, the dancers taught their hosts how to dance the Kolomyika. "We did a Kolomyika for them and got them to take part. They were all into it, they enjoyed it so much," said Mr. Oleksiuk-Baker.

After many of Arkan's shows, people asked to have their pictures taken with the performers. The most successful show was an extra one that Arkan was asked to stage because of the troupe's popularity with festival-goers. "After that show it took the crowd an hour to dissipate because they all wanted to take pictures with us, they even wanted our autographs. We really did our best, and I think we met their expectations," he said.

Arkan represented both Ukrainian and Canadian culture at the festival. Other countries that sent groups included Belgium, the Czech Republic, Israel, Japan, Korea, Poland, Taiwan and Thailand. The dance company performed a mix of Ukrainian and Canadian dance numbers, live music and comedy. Group members also brought enough styluses and beeswax with them to hold pysanka writing workshops for 500 festival-goers.

"As a dancer it was a real thrill to be able to perform abroad alongside many other countries such as Russia and Poland. That really makes me proud to be Ukrainian, it makes me proud to be Canadian," said Mr. Oleksiuk-Baker. He said the trip made him realize that people around the world are not as different as they may seem. "Even in our differences we can appreciate a lot of everybody else. We're not so different after all."

One thing the group wasn't prepared for was the strain that energetic Ukrainian dancing would put on performers in Taiwan's climate. "Some kids were dropping like flies. We were drinking litres and litres of water. We were not used to that kind of humidity," said Ms. Stechishin-Stefura.

The heat was coupled with an extremely busy schedule that gave the group only five days off in their three-week stint at the festival. They performed two short half-hour shows per day. In addition to that, they performed three full-length one-hour shows during the course of the festival.

The group also had to make some cultural adjustments to avoid misunderstandings with their Taiwanese hosts. For instance, left-handed gestures were removed from the dance numbers. "They are like giving someone the finger," said Ms. Stechishin-Stefura.

Taiwanese culture tends to seem formal in its outward appearance to North Americans. Arkan members were expected to give thank-you speeches after excursions and events. Punctuality also is of paramount importance in Taiwan.

"They were very punctual. It drove them crazy if we went over our allocated time," said Ms. Stechishin-Stefura.

But at the same time politeness dictates that the Taiwanese will not overtly show their displeasure. "They never say anything bad. They will not say no. They will stall and talk about other things, but they find our directness rude," she said.

The Taiwanese festival is the beginning step in Arkan's plan to perform at festivals around the world. Two years of promoting the group and meeting the people that organize such events produced invitations to Nairobi and Beijing, as well as to Taiwan, but the group could not attend all of them in the same year. Ms. Stechishin-Stefura said there are a number of other festivals that are now interested in inviting Arkan in the future.

The group has already been invited to Kirovohrad for next year. Ms. Stechishin-Stefura said this city is the dance capital of Ukraine, based on the calibre of youth dance groups. The group is looking at an exchange with a Ukrainian group, but no formal plans have been drawn up yet.

The costs of the trip to Taiwan were defrayed by fund-raising events such as caroling, a silent auction and a dance. The balance was paid by parents. A few dancers qualified for financial assistance from private individuals and organizations.