Pysanka Festival Coverage

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018

Pysanka Festival Grandstand Show

Rusalka performs for a packed grandstand. (Rosanne Fortier/photo)

See full event coverage on pages 4 and 5

PAGE 4 News Advertiser insider JUly 11, 2018 www.NewsAdvertiser.com Vegreville 45th Annual Pysanka Festival Opening Ceremony

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

The theme for Vegreville 45th Annual Pysanka Festival was celebrating Ukrainian Festive Traditions and Culture.

July 6’s Pysanka Festival Opening Ceremony showcased the Ukrainian culture while it honored individuals who contributed in a significant way to preserving and celebrating Ukrainian traditions, arts, and culture. President of Vegreville Cultural Association, Myron Kruk was the emcee. The audience was then warmly welcomed by A.L. Horton School Ukrainian

Bilingual program singing, O’Canada and the Ukrainian National Anthem. Vegreville School of Ukrainian Dancing-Promin’ Dancers appeared next with their lively and graceful dancing. Reverend Slawomir Lomaszkiewicz then led everyone in prayers. Vegreville Sopilka School of Ukrainian Dance performed some original dance steps.

MLA for Fort Saskatchewan/Vegreville, Jessica Littlewood spoke next where she said this festival is not just about remembering our Ukrainian history and culture but about living it out loud! Ukrainians have made so many contributions to Canada. September 7th is Ukrainian/Canadian Heritage Day and a day that needs to be recognized and celebrated. Kruk then read greetings from MP, Shannon Stubbs. County of Minburn Reeve, Roger Konieczny continued with greetings which were followed by a brief speech by Vegreville Mayor’s Tim MacPhee.

Manager of 840 CFCW, Jackie Rae said they are celebrating 60 years of their Zabava program on CFCW. Rae then introduced 840 CFCW and Vegreville Cultural Association (VCA) Ukrainian Music Hall of Honor Inductee 2018, Paul Chychul who was born on July 11, 1937. He was the second youngest in a family of eight children where he grew up on a farm north of Myrnam Alberta. There was always music and instruments in Paul’s family and they always had a family orchestra. After this, he performed with the band, The Northern Troubadours.

Paul with the Chychul’s orchestra then performed an impressive set of lively music and polkas.

Lifetime member of VCA, Larissa Bombak announced the children who won the art contest where their work depicting something from the Ukrainian culture or traditions.

One of the Directors of VCA, Elsie Kawulych introduced the Hospodar and

Hospodar and Hospodynia 2018, Gene and Christine Zwozdesky with their grandchildren, four year-old, Joshua and two year-old Natalie. (Rosanne Fortier/ photo)

A.L. Horton School Ukrainian Bilingual program (Rosanne Fortier/photo)

Vegreville School of Ukrainian Dancing-Promin’ Dancers (Rosanne Fortier/photo)

Hospodynia 2018, (Host and Hostess) Gene and Christine Zwozdesky. Gene and Christine reside in Edmonton. Gene is the former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta where he served 22 years as an MLA and held the cabinet portfolios of Minister of Health, Education, Culture, and Aboriginal Relations. He was awarded the Order of Ukraine Medal for creating the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Act in Alberta and was honored with many other awards for his volunteer efforts. He is also the former Music Director of Shumka, Cheremosh, Tryzub, and Rusalka dance ensembles, and was inducted into CFCW’s Ukrainian Music Hall of Fame.

Christine was and still is very involved in real estate. Christine is a long-term Executive member of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada, St. John’s Cathedral Branch, where she also served as President, as well as, she still engages in many volunteer endeavors.

Gene played a song with Christine as they officially declared the 45th Pysanka Festival open!

Emily Mailhot Reporter – Vegreville News Advertiser

As a part of the Vegreville Ukrainian Pysanka Festival from July 6-8, a folk art and heritage exhibit filled the Social Centre in Vegreville over the weekend, with interactive, and in-depth examples of Ukrainian culture were available for festival guests to enjoy.

The first thing a guest would see when first entering the Social Centre was the bright colours of the Vegreville School of Dance – 45 years display, with costumes, flowers, and a group photo from the beginning of the Vegreville School of Dance. Guests then had the opportunity to browse the many parts of the exhibit, including Ukrainian high-class fashions from the 3rd to 16th century, examples of Ukrainian Christmas and Easter dishes, and a miniature clay hut.

In the exhibit hall, Toby and Shiela Horon gave a demonstration of wool spinning with wool from their own sheep, using a spinning wheel and drop spindle, in the styles that Ukrainian settlers would have used. Other demonstrations included dough dove making with Sophie Hamman and Elsie Kawulych, as well as pysanka writing, wheat weaving, vinkopletennia (floral headpieces,) Ukrainian Ethno Korali (beaded necklaces,) and embroidery.

“Love Letters from the Past,” and Other Folk-Art Adventures

A special feature this year, and something that was both interesting and engaging for guests of Ukrainian descent was a “Trace Your Roots” display, which helped them to trace their ancestry to the different family names and regions in Ukraine. The exhibit explained that this may be difficult, as many names were made “English” on their paperwork in Canada and helped to give guests the tools they needed to trace their family history back to the homeland of their forefathers.

The Kule folklore display: Love Letters from the Past, walked guests through the history of Ukrainian letter writing. This was an enormous part of the culture of Ukrainian-Canadians, as they would have been separated from their families and close communities when they moved overseas. The display showed the letters of a few couples throughout the World War I and World War II eras. The conclusion of the display read, “Personal letters, photographs from family albums, and love stories are valuable windows for looking into the past. These are the most private forms of communication and the most democratic of historical sources. They are genuine and candid, their vulnerability contrasts with the standardized and imposing language of official documents.”

JUly 11, 2018 News Advertiser insider PAGE 5 www.NewsAdvertiser.com Vegreville Pysanka Festival Grandstand Show

Yerkhovyna Choir performs. (Rosanne Fortier/photo)

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

Ukrainian culture and traditions really became alive during the breathless performances by Ukrainian dancers and musicians at the July 7’s afternoon Vegreville Pysanka Festival Grandstand Show and at the other grandstand shows on July 6 and 8.

Natalia Toroshenko was the emcee for the July 7’s afternoon show who kept the audience engaged with her clear voice.

The July 7 show’s performers smoothly appeared on the scene which featured Rusalka Dancing Group, Vohon, Verkhovyna Choir, Dunai, UB, and Hardy Kryvenchuk- Loomis with the Emile’s Old Tyme Dance Band.

Toroshenko asked where the people in the audience came for. Many citizens arrived from local areas, and a few came from across Canada and the United States, Europe and, a couple were from

Ukraine.

One of the highlights was the performance by Hardy Kryvenchuk- Loomis who is 12 years-old musician who played the fiddle (violin) with the Emile’s Old Tyme Dance Band. At this time, it seemed like a rhythmic musical engine was traveling through the grandstand as the music was so lively and skillfully performed.

A certificate was awarded from the Patriots of the Kirovohrad of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and patriots of all of the Ukraine to President of Vegreville Cultural Association, Myron Kruk who traveled through Ukraine in the past months to carry over donations and delivered medical supplies to the rehabilitation hospital in Eastern Ukraine from the Zustreech Ukrainian Society. This certificate of honor was presented to the Vegreville Cultural Association for their contributions to this cause.

Concluding the Pysanka Festival

Emily Mailhot Reporter – Vegreville News Advertiser The final day of Vegreville Ukrainian Pysanka Festival Grandstand Shows was kicked off on Sunday ( July 8) afternoon, with a Ukrainian dance production that told its story with intricate choreography, daring jumps and lifts, and swift gracefulness, and the expressions of the dancers. The dance ended with the men and women breaking off into pairs and exiting the stage. When one woman’s character stayed behind stubbornly, her partner held out his hand and the two skipped joyfully off the stage.

The Verkhoyvena Choir, who are widely known for their singing of the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Liturgy, graced the audience with Ukrainian Folk songs. The gentlemen began the set, joined afterward by the ladies, who sang a sweet, slow lullaby in contrast with the gentlemen’s humorous performance. When the whole choir sang together, they used SATB harmonies. The audience smiled and sometimes sang along with their favourite Ukrainian folk songs, remembered from their own childhoods.

They were followed by the Dunai song and dance ensemble, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary of Ukrainian cultural song and dance. For them, the Vegreville Ukrainian Pysanka Festival is a last stop at

home before they embark on a summer tour, which will visit locations such as Georgia (USA) and Ukraine.

The Cheremoch group danced with swiftness and big smiles, with a traditional dance from Ukraine’s mountain region. “Don’t they just dance like fire?” the announcer commented to the audience when all of the Cheremoch dancers had left the stage.

After this, the Verkhoyvenia choir rejoined the audience for a few more songs (with some audience participation) and were followed by one last dance from the Vohan dance group, featuring exciting lifts.

In conclusion of the Grandstand Showcase, Grandstand Hospodar and Hospodynia Gene and Christine Zwozdesky bid farewell to the audience and performers. “The Ukrainian Pysanka Festival is a stellar example of the richness and diversity of the culture of the Ukrainian people,” said Hospodynia Christine.

“Whether or not you share the Ukrainian Heritage we celebrate here,” Hospodar Gene remarked in closing, “we hope that you share in our pride.”

Hospodar Gene then led the audience in a farewell song, and gave the stage to the Euphoria band, to close off the weekend of grandstand performances.

Hardy Kryvenchuk-Loomis who is 12 years-old performs with the Emile’s Old Tyme Dance Band. (Rosanne Fortier/photo)

Rusalka performs a Ukrainian dance. (Rosanne Fortier/photo)