Jaroslav Klun (in an undated photo).
HAMILTON, Ontario – Jaroslav Roman Klun, who founded the acclaimed Chaika Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Hamilton, Ontario, and won high praise for maintaining Ukrainian folkloric traditions in his choreography, died in Hamilton, on November 23, 2014. He was 87 years old.
Mr. Klun founded the Chaika ensemble shortly after arriving in Canada in 1951 and served as the troupe’s artistic director and choreographer for 29 years. Drawing on innate talents and dance skills acquired in his native village of Yezupil in western Ukraine, he dedicated countless hours and ceaseless energy to instructing Ukrainian young people of the Hamilton area in the intricacies and visual color of Ukrainian dance. Under his tutelage, the Chaika ensemble became one of Canada’s leading Ukrainian dance ensembles, known and admired in the U.S. and Europe as well.
Ukrainian Canadian folklorist Robert B. Klymasz, adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba Center for Ukrainian Studies, credits innovative choreographers such as Jaroslav Klun and the Chaika ensemble (among several Ukrainian troupes in Canada) for countering the “wholesale importation of Soviet dance styles,” which he does not characterize as true Ukrainian dance.
It is widely believed that Mr. Klun’s passion for Ukrainian dance and music and his love for his native Ukraine were a catalyst that brought together many Ukrainians and will be passed on to future generations. Mr. Klun’s son, Roman, a New York record producer/mix engineer and two-time Grammy nominee, and daughter Nadia Klun Stadler, choreographer for the Dunai Ukainian dance ensemble of St. Catharines, Ontario, reiterate the view that their father enriched the principles of national dance by diligently maintaining Ukrainian folkloric traditions, enabling the Chaika ensemble to captivate Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian audiences alike.
Known to his students as Slawko or Pan Slawko, Mr. Klun directed Chaika, served as a guest choreographer and instructor, organized Chaika’s tours, and produced spectacular dance and music events while holding a daytime job in Canada’s meat-packing industry – first as office manager for Essex Packers and later as export manager of domestic, U.S. and European shipments for Better Beef Ltd. (In the late 1980s, as a tribute to their retiring employee, the company named its trucking fleet Klunski’s trucking.)
Under the sponsorship of the Ukrainian National Federation (known by its Ukrainian-based acronym as UNO) of Hamilton, Chaika members assembled for rehearsals at Hamilton’s UNO hall to hone their prowess in Ukrainian dance. The troupe entertained audiences at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto and in scores of Canadian cities, appearing before Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, federal and provincial officials, and local dignitaries. A U.S. tour in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and New York, one of many U.S. excursions, included a stop at Soyuzivka, the Ukrainian National Association’s heritage center in Kerhonkson, N.Y.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Ukrainian National Youth Organization (known as MUNO) in 1964, Mr. Klun assembled 150 dancers from all corners of Ontario for a gala concert at Toronto’s O’Keefe Center featuring the dancers, Ukrainian choirs and bandurists, and a special appearance by Hollywood actor Jack Palance. In 1976, Chaika and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra teamed up for a Christmas celebration that presented songs and dances before a 2,000-strong audience. During a 1977 tour of major cities in England, Germany and France, Chaika dancers age 6 to 36 charmed audiences with their skills and vitality.
Chaika’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2007 was highlighted by the appearance of 16 former Chaika dancers in their senior years, who rehearsed for 10 weeks to perform in full Ukrainian costume during a gala concert at the Hamilton Convention Center, interpreting an original work choreographed by Mr. Klun.
From the 1960s to the late 1980s, Mr. Klun was a guest choreographer and instructor for Ukrainian groups in Canada and Brazil. His workshops in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Thunder Bay, Ontario, led to the formation of Ukrainian dance groups in Ontario and Canada’s western provinces. He was invited to teach the Verkhovyntsi ensemble of Toronto for several years, was guest choreographer for the Kalyna, Barvinok and Dunai ensembles of Ontario, and served as instructor for the Roma Pryma Bohachevsky dance camp in Glen Spey, N.Y., from 1980 to 1989.
Other teaching duties included a summer stint in Curitiba, Brazil, where he helped to coach the local Ukrainian dance group for its first North American tour, as well as workshops in Canada for visiting ensembles like Shuplak from England and Nadzbruchanka from Ukraine.
Born in 1927 in the village of Yezupil, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, to Yevhen and Maria Klun, Jaroslav Klun grew up in a rural environment that preserved traditional forms of Ukrainian folk dancing and musical accompaniment. He learned the art of Ukrainian dance from his father, a dance instructor, and received ballet instruction from his uncle Bohdan, a resident of Ivano-Frankivsk. Inspired by the outstanding work of Ukrainian dance director Jaroslav Chuperchuk, he planned to continue his dance studies, but the outbreak of World War II shattered that hope.
The Klun family became separated when its members moved west to escape captivity and the ravages of war. Finding himself in northwestern France, a region formerly occupied by Nazi Germany, the young Jaroslav enlisted in a two-year program of service in the French Foreign Legion. Later, he lived for a time in a displaced persons’ camp in England, working for a brick-laying facility by day and choreographing and teaching Ukrainian dance in the evening for camp residents’ entertainment.
Believing that his aunt Natalia was his family’s only survivor, Mr. Klun made several attempts to find her through the International Red Cross. Meanwhile, his father sent letters to the Red Cross in search of his sister Natalia. Red Cross officials informed both of the other’s existence, and in 1951 Mr. Klun was reunited with his parents in Hamilton.
He started a Ukrainian dance group named Hopak in the basement of Holy Spirit Ukrainian Catholic Church for students age 4 to 20; the group was soon traveling to other Ontario cities to perform newly mastered Ukrainian dances. In 1957, the Hopak troupe joined forces with a MUNO dance group in Hamilton to form the Chaika Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, selecting the name Chaika (the Ukrainian word for seagull) to evoke images of dancers moving like seagulls in swift and graceful flight.
Mr. Klun is survived by his wife of 48 years, Jackilyn (Botten), son Roman and wife, Maria Infantine, daughter Nadia and husband, Roman Stadler, and two grandchildren, Maksim and Sofia Klun Stadler.
Following a funeral service at Holy Spirit Church, interment took place at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Burlington, Ontario.
The family has requested that those who wish to make a donation in Mr. Klun’s memory contact Ukrainian Social Services in Hamilton or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.