UKRAINIAN DEBUTANTE BALLS: Chervona Kalyna debutante ball marks its 50th anniversary (04/09/06)

UKRAINIAN DEBUTANTE BALLS

Chervona Kalyna debutante ball marks its 50th anniversary

RUTHERFORD, N.J. - This year's Chervona Kalyna Ball celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first, albeit informal, debut that took place in the Ukrainian National Home in 1956, when Ivan Wintoniak acted on a happy impulse to arrange an introduction for the youngest women at the dance in an impromptu and humor-laced "presentation," calling them "the debutantes."

The idea caught on, and three years later, in 1959, Mr. Wintoniak and Eustachia Hoydysh of the New York Plast organization prepared a group of girls for a real debut in white dresses - in the first of what is now a long history of such events that have become a rite of passage for youth in the Ukrainian American community.

This year's ball, held on February 25, again took place at the Sheraton Meadowlands in Rutherford, N.J., with approximately 800 guests in attendance.

Eight debutantes and their escorts - Anna Chelak of Morristown, N.J., and Nick Kobryn of Pomona, N.Y.; Diana Dekajlo of East Meadow, N.Y,. and Zenon Halatyn of Westford, Mass.; Anastasia Hrabovsky of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Mark Palcan of Park Ridge, Ill.; Tatiana Hryhorowych of Manhattan and Christopher Rizanow of Blue Bell, Pa.; Maria Kavatsiuk of Berkeley Heights, N.J., and Roman Kovbasniuk of Whippany, N.J.; Natalia Kiyashka and Olexa Makuch both of Forest Hills, N.Y.; Larissa Kobziar of Pelham, N.Y., and Markian Wirstiuk of Fort Washington, Pa.; Michelle Slota of Beacon Falls, Conn., and Yuriy Dobriansky of Manhattan - made their elegant entrance, performing a special "debutante quadrille" exquisitely choreographed by Anya Bohachevska-Lonkevych.

Most of this year's debutantes, as well as the escorts, have been students of Ukrainian dance at the school of the late Roma Pryma-Bohachevska in New York or in New Jersey, and many of them, as well as their escorts, are current members of Ukrainian folk dance ensembles or have experience in ballet.

They were, in short, a delight to watch, both during the formal presentation and during the traditional midnight "Hopak." They seem to have had just as wonderful a time that evening as did all of the guests who packed the dance floor in response to the familiar, in turn romantic or rousing, melodies of the Tempo Orchestra and Oles Kuzyszyn's Luna.

The ballroom was a vision of the "kalyna," symbol of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and of Ukraine. The kalyna's verdant leaves and crimson berries were executed in gorgeous red roses both as table centerpieces and the debutantes' bouquets, chosen by Olya Stawnychy, whose husband, Dr. Yaroslav Stawnychy, is the Chervona Kalyna Organizing Committee's second in command. The theme also beautifully echoed in the design of the invitations, the work of Bohdan Tytla, and the program booklets produced by Yevshan of Montreal.

Several distinguished guests shared this joyous evening with the Ukrainian community: ambassador of the Ukrainian Mission to the United Nations, Valeriy Kuchinsky, and his wife, Alla; and the new General Consul in New York, Mykola Kyrychenko, and his wife, Olena, who last enjoyed the Chervona Kalyna in the early 1990s.

They shared a table with the head of the Chervona Kalyna Organizing Committee and "otaman" of the Chervona Kalyna Fraternity, Ihor Sochan, and his wife, Lilia, their daughter Marichka Sochan-Tymyc, who prepared the program booklet and the tableau, and her husband, Bohdan Tymyc of Yevshan, and Marta and Orest Kebalo, who once again presented the debutantes this year - for their 22nd time.

In their greeting during the presentation of debutantes, Mr. and Mrs. Kebalo noted that this year, 2006, marks the somber 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy. But as sorrow and joy are often intertwined, by happy coincidence, among this year's debutantes was an accomplished young woman, Maria Kavatsiuk, a dancer with the New Jersey Classical Ballet Professional Junior Company, who was just a baby when her family became the first to be rescued and brought to America by the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund.

Next year's Chervona Kalyna will be held again at the Sheraton Meadowlands; the date: February 17, 2007.

| Home Page |