Dancing has long been one of the favorite ways Ukrainians have fun.
To celebrate holidays, weddings or the end of harvest season, peasants would jubilantly revel in music and dancing.
Not even Soviet-era repression could curb this practice, although the communists tried. Some 20 years into national independence, Ukrainians are enjoying their new freedoms by not only embracing modern dance styles, but also reviving their traditional dance heritage.
“Rhythm is in the blood of Ukrainians, it’s a culture predisposed to dance,” says Olga Struk, director of the international dance studio Arthur Murray in Kyiv.
While traditional folk dance and ballroom existed during the Soviet Union, some modern dances were forbidden as a threat to undermining communist ideology.
“Dance was strictly controlled as a medium potentially inciting individual expression,” says Tatyana Borysenko, choreographer and teacher at the Kyiv Arts College. Even more contrary to the Soviet ideology were the free-spirited rock’n’roll and swing movements that were slipping under the Iron Curtain in the 1950s and encouraging youth to celebrate rebellion.
Rhythm is in the blood of Ukrainians, it’s a culture predisposed to dance
– Olga Struk, director of the international dance studio Arthur Murray in Kyiv
Now, the forbidden styles are no longer suppressed and new dance forms have percolated on the Ukrainian dance market. “People traveled more frequently and information channels were opened for Ukrainians could access videos of any desired dance style,” says Borysenko.
Even swing dance, which some trace to 1920s America, arrived. In 1998, a group of enthusiasts got ahold of swing videos started mimicking the moves. They didn’t stop there. “First we got really interested in rock’n’roll.
Then we discovered boogie woogie, followed by swing and the lindy hop. It snowballed from there,” says Taras Melnyk, a pioneer swing dancer in Kyiv and founder of Kiev Swing Dance Club.
Around the same time, the first salsa club and Caribbean school replaced an old Soviet cafe. The club quickly became an attraction for local Latin Americans and a hub for Latin dancing and culture in the capital, and remains one till this day.
Social dancing features rotating partners and a higher focus on mingling. Today, most young people’s idea of dancing revolves around the modern club scene with its more individualistic nature. However, many enthusiasts are trying to bring pair dancing back into fashion.
Social dance is about freedom and spontaneity
– Olga Struk
“It’s not the mentality of professional adults in Ukraine to go dancing on a Friday night, to view it as an entertainment activity,” says Olga Struk, the director of the Arthur Murray studio, an international dance franchise established 100 years ago. But she’d like to change all that.
Operating in 25 countries, the Ukraine branch of Arthur Murray opened three months ago, offering lessons and hosting dance evenings.
“Social dance is all about a social, relaxed and friendly atmosphere, as opposed to the competitive and show-off nature typical of ballroom dance,” says Struk, noting the wide range of dance options, from waltz and salsa to hustle and swing.
“Social dance is about freedom and spontaneity,” she says.
The aristocratic tradition of cadet balls has even arrived at military schools, with participants twirling in waltzes, polkas and more contemporary dances.
More newlyweds have also started incorporating dance into their celebrations, says Oleg Samoylenko, the owner of dance studio Release, who introduced wedding dance choreography four years ago.
Release’s wide array of dance instruction includes Middle Eastern belly dancing, Spanish flamenco, New York Broadway and even the aggressive hip-hop dance Krump from Los Angeles in the early 1990s, among others.
Ukrainian TV versions of “Dancing with the Stars” and “Everyone is Dancing” have also kept millions entertained.
Borysenko sees this as only natural. “By its nature, dance has and will be a social and group activity. It provides a non-verbal way to connect and express one’s emotion,” says the Kyiv Arts College instructor.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mariya Manzhos can be reached at [email protected]
