DATELINE NEW YORK: Ukrainian headline-makers at the Met (07/06/03)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Ukrainian headline-makers at the Met

by Helen Smindak

The American Ballet Theater's 2003 spring season at the renowned Metropolitan Opera House was graced by the performances of four dancers born in Ukraine: Irina Dvorovenko, her husband Maxim Belotserkovsky, and her mother Olga Dvorovenko, all of whom hail from Kyiv, and Vladimir Malakhov, a native of Kryvyi Rih in eastern Ukraine.

Their performances through May and June drew critical acclaim from many quarters, including the esteemed dance critics Anna Kisselgoff, Jennifer Dunning and Jack Anderson of The New York Times.

Partnered by Ethan Steifel, Irina Dvorovenko, a dynamic and excellently schooled dancer who can whip off perfect fouettes, opened ABT's ballet gala on May 5 in the role of Gamzatti, a rajah's daughter. She and Mr. Steifel danced the betrothal scene from Natalia Makarova's 1980 staging of Marius Petipa's 19th century spectacle, "La Bayadere."

In a review by Ms. Dunning of Antony Tudor's "Offenbach in the Underworld," Ms. Dvorovenko was described as "delicious perfection" in the lead role of the Operetta Star - " with every flick of the shoulders, wrists and come-hither legs signaling hard-boiled insouciance."

Olga Dvorovenko, in the role of Offenbach's Madame la Patronne, "made the cafe proprietor into a gracious woman who had obviously lived and loved," wrote Ms. Dunning. The dancer is a ballet instructor who interprets character roles in ABT productions.

Mr. Belotserkovsky, termed by Ms. Dunning "a terrific dancer" in Stanton Welch's "Clear" - a ballet she described as "a feast of understated bravura dancing for men" - found an even greater admirer in Ms. Kisselgoff. Complimenting him for his performance in "La Fille Mal Gardee," Ms. Kisselgoff pointed out that he and his partner (Nina Ananiashvili), as the lovers, gave a most animated performance that was "sometimes free form but full of theatrical detail."

Ms. Dunning singled out Irina Dvorovenko for praise in "Don Quixote," noting that she was "all flashing limbs in her jumps, with a rare, strange beauty to her delicate fan play in the fouettes."

On June 17, Ms. Dvorovenko and Mr. Belotserkovsky, who are among Ballet Theater's most popular principals, were seen for the first time as the star-crossed lovers in "Romeo and Juliet." Ms. Kisselgoff's review said that Ms. Dvorovenko's portrayal of Juliet ranged from vivacious to dazed, and Mr. Belotserkovsky's short-tempered Romeo was also tender.

Mr. Anderson devoted most of his June 22 review of the season's first "Swan Lake" to the couple - Ms. Dvorovenko in the dual role of Odette, the Swan Queen, and Odile, the sorcerer's daughter who disguises herself as Odette, and Mr. Belotserkovsky as Prince Siegfried, who loves Odette but is deceived by Odile.

Wrote Mr. Anderson: "Mr. Belotserkovsky quickly established that his Siegfried was eager and high-spirited. Yet his noble line in the slow solo at the end of the first act indicated that Siegfried was sensitive and gregarious."

He praised Ms. Dvorovenko, saying she "offered a mimed solo in the second act that was clear, sincere storytelling." In the adagio act, she and Mr. Belotserkovsky "let one limpid movement flow into another until their dancing was like a long sigh of love."

Mr. Malakhov, a multi-award winning dancer known for his soaring leaps and skimming traveling brises, made only a few appearances this season. He was lauded by Ms. Kisselgoff for his "gentle Romeo - a poetic dreamer who nevertheless snarles as he goes after Tybalt."

Ms. Kisselgoff said his noble line and fabled airy leaps were visible in the male trio of Act I and during his solo in the balcony scene.

Mr. Malakhov, who joined ABT in 1995, is a product of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, where he began studies at the age of 10. Mr. Belotserkovsky, with ABT since 1994, and Ms. Dvorovenko, who joined the company in 1996, studied at the Kyiv Ballet.

The Kyiv Ballet was also the training ground for Romanian-born Alina Cojocaru, a 21-year-old guest artist from the Royal Ballet in Britain who made her debut with Ballet Theater in June as Nikiya in "La Bayadere."

Kirov's Ukrainians

Four Ukrainian singers who are principals in the Kirov Opera of St. Petersburg will appear in leading roles when the Kirov comes to the Met this week for a three-week run.

Baritone Vassily Gerello, tenors Vladimir Grishko and Viktor Lutsiuk, and bass-baritone Mikhail Kit will sing title or principal roles in the operas "Semyon Kotko," "Khovanshchina," "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh" and "Macbeth."

The season opens on July 8 with Prokofiev's "Semyon Kotko" in a new production which transports the characters from the opera's original setting of the Ukrainian steppe to a charred, pitted scrap yard.

The Met's official press release offers this synopsis: The revolutionary Bolshevik government in Moscow has made peace with Germany, but much of Ukraine is still under German occupation. The Red Army, supported by scattered revolutionary partisan units, is advancing, opposed by the Germans and Haidamak-members of a cavalry detachment loyal to a reactionary Ukrainian nationalist.

Mr. Lutsiuk, who also appears in "Khovanshchina" and "Eugene Onegin," sings the role of Semyon, returning to his Ukrainian village in 1918 after four years as a gunner in the Russian army.

In the final act of the very long opera (curtain time is 7:30 p.m.), a blind bandura player laments the troubles of Ukraine.

Mr. Grishko takes on the role of Semyon the following night. He and Mr. Kit tackle the roles of Andrei Khovansky and Dosifei in "Khovanshchina" on July 11, and Mr. Gerello sings the title role in "Macbeth" on the evening of July 12.

It's very likely that there will be more than four Ukrainians performing on the Met stage during this run, since the Kirov roster includes quite a few Ukrainian names (Moroz, Petrenko, Semenchuk and Steblianko). The Met press office, however, was unable to provide additional information, and Kirov's publicity rep has not responded to "Dateline's" e-mail query.

Two cultural institutions

Two new Ukrainian cultural organizations - Hollywood Trident Network-New York and Zorya Inc. - have surfaced in the New York metropolitan area, a phenomenon that will undoubtedly expand our cultural borders in the Big City and beyond.

The California-based Hollywood Trident Network, seeking to widen the scope of its central organization, the Hollywood Trident Foundation, has formed a New York chapter that will be known as Hollywood Trident Network-New York (HTN-NY).

Bringing together entertainment and media industry professionals, HTN-NY expects to support fellow members in their career pursuits in New York and internationally and facilitate contact among professionals in the entertainment industry who are interested in Ukrainian affairs.

The inaugural meeting, held in May at the Ukrainian Institute of America, was chaired by Peter Borisow, president of Media Finance Management in Los Angeles, who heads the Hollywood Trident Foundation. (Los Angeles attorney Andy Semotiuk heads the Hollywood Trident Network.) On hand were a couple of film producers, a cinematographer, an actor, an advertising executive, a TV writer/producer, an artist and a theater director.

The group selected a three-member commission which includes New Yorkers Teresa Zariczny, Marko Suprun and Peter Sabat to draw up a plan of action.

Taking a cue from the foundation, which held a Dovzenko film festival at UCLA last fall and plans a human rights film festival this year, HTN-New York will consider arranging a Ukrainian film festival, planning an exhibit of large posters at the Ukrainian Institute and creating scholarships for Ukrainian students.

Roman Czajkowsky, a member of the institute's board of directors who is keen about an organization that will stage Ukrainian events and programs that would impact on the American public, sees HTN-NY as an instrument for educating Americans about Ukraine's rich heritage and dispelling myths and mistaken notions about Ukraine.

Individuals interested in joining the New York group, either as regular or associate members, are asked to contact Mr. Czajkowksy at the Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 E. 79th St., New York, NY 10021; or phone (212) 288-8660.

Zorya Inc., a not-for-profit organization dedicated to elevating and inspiring public awareness of Ukrainian history, culture, art and the sciences, was formed in Connecticut and has already established an affiliation with the New York-based Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences (UVAN).

The organization was founded in April 2001 at the initiative of Zorianna Majewski Altomaro of Greenwich, Conn., in memory of her late father, Alexander Alfred Majewski, her grandmother Tatiana Majewski Rosov and her maternal grandparents, Lew and Stephania Pushkar. Ms. Altomaro points out that her husband, Robert P. Altomaro II, and her mother, Christina T. Majewski, are the inspiration and guiding force behind Zorya.

Valeriy Kuchinsky, Ukraine's permanent representative to the United Nations, is Zorya's advisor, and business and community leaders from a variety of backgrounds make up its board of directors. Though still in its initiatory phase, Zorya is on the way to realizing a number of its goals.

The organization recently sponsored the debut presentation of groundbreaking research on archeological discoveries from Baturyn, Ukraine's capital city in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Currently, it is collaborating with UVAN to plan and support the restoration and preservation of the landmark New York building that houses the academy, and has already donated $20,000 toward the building's restoration. There are plans to restore the academy's archives, a project deemed extremely important to the cultural life of the Ukrainian community.

Zorya is also sponsoring art exhibits of Ukrainian artists Valeriy Skrypka and Anton S. Kandinsky, as well as a book-length study on Ukraine's royalty by Ukrainian Canadian historian/author Andrew Gregorovich.

Named Zorya, which means star in Ukrainian, because it hopes to be the star by which people may navigate to a higher level of appreciation and knowledge of Ukraine's history and culture, the organization may be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].

Helen Smindak's e-mail address is [email protected].

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