Press
“THE NEW YORK TIMES”
(09.11.2004)
It May Be à Folk Troupe, but Thatús Just Its Roots
The young men in the Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company are still soaring high in the air in splits, careering around the stage in gravity-defying butterfly jumps and spinning like tops in the 18th-century equivalent of break dancing.
Here is bravura dancing at its greatest, as this first-class professional folk troupe from Kiev showed again at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately such companies come and go quickly nowadays in New York, but there is still à chance to see the mix of lyrical dances and virtuosic fireworks from the groupús men and women on Monday at the Mccarter Theater in Princeton.
No folk, of course, ever danced like this. The company that Pavel (now called Pavlo) Virsky founded in Kiev in 1937 with Mikola Bolotov is made up of professional dancers with à great deal of ballet training. Any dance lover will appreciate the eye-opening level of technique that remains undiminished since the company first came here in the 1970ús. Vigor and power go with amazing lightness.
Like Igor Moiseyev in Moscow, Virsky knew how to capture the essence of folk dances and to recreate them as choreography for viewers, not participants. It is easy to criticize such companies with roots in the Soviet era as heedless of strict authenticity. Yet these were theatrical dance companies, not ethnographic research institutes. Artistically the Virsky troupe was one of the best.
Virsky died in 1975, and Myroslav Vantukh, the groupús director since 1980, has made the company à showcase for national pride. There is à new chest-out swagger in Virskyús martial dance for cossacks, galloping with their spears. Mr. Vantukh has also extended the repertoryús range with dances from different regions of Ukraine. His suite from the Carpathian Mountains in the west is especially fine with its dances for couples, shepherds' competitions and the use of small steps that contrast with the squatting dances of the cossack areas to the east or the thrilling high jumps of the hopak, which is considered Ukraineús national dance.
The highlight remains úúsailors',ú à medley of naval dances that Virsky choreographed with depth and nuance. It is à dazzling display of patterns but also abstract images of work and sea. It offers à showcase for bravura solos, often performed by the younger and shorter men who think nothing of spinning like helicopters in successive air turns with no preparation in between.
Two new entries by Mr. Vantukh have à revue quality that is jarring. These are úúukrainian Dance With Tambourines,ú' although performed by an excellent male ensemble, and úúgypsy Dance.'' In 'úbereznianka,ú' Mr. Vantukh offers à jaunty Carpathian dance for women with bobbing heads -- à little gem.
The Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company performs on Monday at the Mccarter Theater in Princeton, N.j.
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
|