DATELINE NEW YORK: A community that plays together (06/27/99)

DATELINE NEW YORK: A community that plays together

by Helen Smindak

The Ukrainian Festival, for the past 22 years staged by St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church, drew throngs of Ukrainian Americans and hundreds of East Village residents to Seventh Street in mid-May. They were captivated by the sight of youthful bandurists and folk dancers, enthralled by the sound of melodious voices raised in song, tantalized by the enticing aroma of spicy holubtsi and kovbasa.

Ludmilla S. (as she identified herself), a young pediatrician from Ivano-Frankivsk, gasped in amazement: "You have more traditional arts and crafts than we do in Ukraine!"

Manhattan novelist Marlene Shyer, on the lookout for Ukrainian miscellany for her next book, which includes a Ukrainian American character, took note of the Ukrainian national emblem, the trident that formed part of the stage background. She paused to study the ornate pysanky displayed by Easter egg artist Sofia Zielyk, then relished a plateful of tasty varenyky.

Others in the festival throng, whose roots go back to towns and cities like Uzhorod, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Ternopil, represented the second, third and fourth (the most recent) waves of Ukrainian immigration to the United States. They were of different faiths and political beliefs, but for three days they were united by a common, exuberant feeling of joy and pride in the culture of their ancestral land. Embroidered blouses and shirts were de rigueur for many.

Although weekend nights were capped by a singles evening and a Saturday night dance at the Ukrainian National Home, activities centered on Seventh Street. Beginning Friday evening with Daria Genza's Ukrainian dancers from St. George's Academy and continuing through to late Sunday afternoon, when Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky's Syzokryli Dancers excited onlookers with an electrifying rendition of the Hopak, the stage was rarely empty.

Performing groups included bandura ensembles from Manhattan and Astoria directed by Julian Kytasty and Alla Kutsevich; children's dance troupes from Connecticut, New Jersey (Newark and Whippany) and New York (Albany and Manhattan), the product of Ms. Pryma-Bohachevsky's diligence and expertise; the Mriya dance ensemble of Long Island directed by Petro Fil, and the Brooklyn-based Nasha Rodyna songsters led by musicologist Oksana Lykhovyd.

Among soloists who appeared throughout the weekend were soprano Laryssa Magun-Huryn, tenor Bohdan Sikora, baritone George Fedoriw, bandurist Alla Kutsevich, guitarist Jurij Hrab and Andriy Solodenko, who accompanied himself on the keyboard while singing two of his own compositions. Sviatoslav Maksymchuk, a member of Lviv's famed Zankovetska Theater, declaimed recitations in a sonorous voice.

The program was coordinated by Anna Baczynska, and announcers' duties were capably handled in English and Ukrainian by the teams of Ulana Kekish-Solodenko and Ivanna Mazur-Hodowanec, and Ms. Huryn and Taras Mazur.

Visitors to the block-long bazaar found much to admire and buy from street vendors and the popular Surma gift shop - from embroidered goods, amber jewelry, hand-strung gerdany and wood carved items, to a multitude of books and recordings by Ukrainian artists.

Paul Wirhun, a recent arrival to New York from Provincetown, Mass., who learned the art of Ukrainian egg decorating from his mother, showed curious bystanders how he has expanded the traditional wax-resist technique with innovative brush and dyeing processes. Mr. Wirhun's egg talismans, partially filled with beach sand, stand on their own when placed in an upright position.

New additions to the festival were booths and display tables offering services and assistance to Ukraine, such as Western Union (money transfers) and Meest (transfer of goods, food parcels and money). Dr. Bohdan Oryshkevich of New York, who directs USA/USA (Ukrainian Student Association in the U.S.A.), a program dedicated to assisting gifted high-school students from Ukraine in applying for scholarships to leading prep schools and colleges in the United States and Canada, answered questions and explained the need for "a network of world-class educated Ukrainians" who might become influential figures in government, corporate institutions and the cultural sphere.

Meanwhile, Anisa Sawyckyj Mycak mingled with festival-goers, distributing information leaflets and questionnaires for what she promised would be "a fabulous experience": a banquet and ball celebrating the 50th anniversary of the School of Ukrainian Studies in New York, planned for October 2 at the Ukrainian National Home.

Food stands provided coffee, and an array of pastries as well as traditional varenyky, holubtsi and a sauerkraut-kovbasa mélange (bigus); cold refreshments were available at Brewsky's Bar, both indoors and at its outdoor premises, as well as at McSorley's, the century-old Irish ale house that becomes part of the festival scene every May (and is one of the festival's sponsors).

There was actually more to the festival than met the eye, and those who planned their schedules wisely were able to enjoy the benefits of nearby exhibits of pysanky and art, as well as a concert of religious music presented by the Dumka Chorus in St. George's Church after Sunday morning's liturgies.

Beautifully showcased at The Ukrainian Museum were 400 pysanky created by master artisan Tanya Osadca, part of one of the most important and largest pysanky collections outside of Ukraine (over 2,000 eggs) The pysanky were shown with contemporary oils and mixed-media works by Ms. Osadca's sister, Aka Pereyma, who uses pysanka motifs, and folkloristic and ritualistic elements, to marvelous effect in her abstract images. (The exhibit received a very nice write-up in the April 23 edition of Women's Wear Daily.)

The Mayana Gallery, which usually focuses on Ukrainian artwork, presented a show that embraced the work of one Ukrainian artist, Oxana Narozniak of Brazil, and five other artists, among them Dong Kingman, one of the world's best colorists, and Japanese American Amy Kasal, who creates art by incorporating personal flotsam and jetsam, acquired over time, as a medium for her assemblages. Bavarian-born Ms. Narozniak, educated in New York, Detroit and Hawaii, showed the only sculptures in the exhibit, portraying sleek and nubile figures of young women.

Also timed to coincide with the festival was a walking tour that was planned to point out the Ukrainian highlights in the East Village. Dr. Phillip Sohoenberg, who regularly leads tours in Manhattan and Brooklyn for New York Walks and Talks, conducted a two-hour walk on Saturday morning which submerged its half-dozen participants in facts and history, and gave them a peek inside Kurowycky's Meat Market and First Avenue Pierogi and Deli, but did not take members inside any cultural institutions such as The Ukrainian Museum. Dr. Schoenberg, however, did have the presence of mind to wind up the tour on Seventh Street, right in the midst of the Ukrainian Festival.

Noteworthy

Ukrainian Canadian hockey star Mike Bossy spent his entire career as a New York Islander. At a gala awards dinner held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel's Grand Ballroom on June 10, the Canadian Society of New York paid tribute to Mr. Bossy's outstanding decade-long career, during which he scored 573 goals with 553 assists for a total of 1,126 points.
Actress Milla Jovovich plays a spike-haired outcast, with Mel Gibson as a detective and Jimmy Smits as a skid row con, in a new movie "The Million Dollar Hotel." Part cyber-punk, part "Ship of Fools," the plot is set in the near future and might be described as a love story with detective interruptions. Other stars in the movie, which does not yet have a distribution deal, are Jeremy Davies, Amanda Plummer, Peter Stormare and Gloria Stuart.
Oksana Baiul joined Elvis Stoyko and Ilia Kulik for Michelle Kwan's June 10 special on ABC-TV. Skating to music from "Walt Disney's Top 10 Greatest Hits," the four Olympic skaters showed some fancy footwork and graceful gliding, both in solo and ensemble skating. A few weeks earlier, PBS carried a one-hour "Evening of Championship Skating 1998" that featured Ms. Baiul and the ice-dancing couple Maya Usova and Evgeny Platov.
At 79, actor Jack Palance is working on another film. According to his sister Mary, who lives in the New York borough of Queens, he's on location "somewhere out west," but the name of the film is not yet known.
In May, Maria (Mariyka) Wolansky, a founding member of New York's Syzokryli Ukrainian Dancers and longtime member of the Promin Vocal Ensemble, performed the major role of Olympia in Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffman" for the Stony Hill Players Opera Company in Summit, N.J.

Thanks to her realistic "doll" movements, porcelain-like painted and, most of all, her fine coloratura voice, Mrs. Wolansky was considered the best of the three Olympias alternating in the role. She also played the role of Stella in all performances (the epilogue) and performed in the chorus (Act 2) as a courtesan in Venice whose lover was played by her real-life husband, Lev Wolansky, a singer and composer who is a radiologist by profession.
Kyiv-born Georgie Pocheptsov, the 7-year-old prodigy from Maryland whose Picasso-like paintings fetch up to $9,000 a work, appeared on the "Maury Povich Show" on June 9. Accompanied by his mother, Dubrava, Georgie told Mr. Povich he started to do "mature work" at the age of 4 or 5. To which his mother added, "He actually started to draw at 17 months." His mother told the show's host the young artist speaks Russian, Ukrainian and English.
Actor George Dzundza was featured in "Basic Instinct" with Michael Douglas. Now he's featured in a supporting role in the movie "Instinct," with Academy Award winners Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. The movie, described as "an extraordinarily powerful, mysterious and moving psychological thriller, "opened in New York City theaters on June 4.
Though he lives in Los Angeles, classical guitarist and actor Dimitri Diatchenko, 30, may be a familiar face to readers through TV and films. The blond, blue-eyed, 6-foot-1-inch, 220-pound actor guest-starred as the main bad guy in a May 15 episode of the Chuck Norris series "Walker, Texas Ranger." He played one of the Navy Seals in the Demi Moore feature film "G.I. Jane" and has appeared in six or seven TV shows, including "Fame L.A." and "Diagnosis Murder." Mr. Diatchenko, whose father comes from Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, and mother (of Swedish stock) is from Portland, Maine, recently completed his debut guitar recording, "SixString - 2000." Though not yet in the stores, the CD may be obtained via computer by punching in guitarsalon.com and then searching for the CD sales section.

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