Dancers practice at the Rawlinson Centre Friday afternoon (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Ukrainian Dancing

Annual dance festival continues this weekend

Apr 6, 2019 | 9:14 AM

A long standing cultural event will continue this weekend at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre.

The 32^nd Annual Prince Albert Barveenok Ukrainian Dance Festival runs all weekend and features dancers from under the age of six to over nineteen..

Dorothy Kawula is one of the festival co-chairs, she said this year’s festival is sizeable.

“This year we’ve got about 20 clubs coming, almost 300 dancers,” she said.

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Kids dancing in the festival have the opportunity to have their skills evaluated by judges, and have the potential to win medals.

The festival offers those in attendance a variety of entertainment in terms of the type of dancing.

(Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

“There’s so many different regions of the Ukraine and each region has unique style of dance,” said Kawula.

The styles of dance can be wide ranging, from more high energy moves to ones that are much different.

“Some of them are more mountainous, so you get the high kicks and the very energetic and some of them are a little more lyrical and have softer movement,” she said.

One of the dancers who will be performing this weekend is Roksolana Horal. Horal, who will dance in the senior group, has danced for nearly nine years. She said festivals like this provide good experiences.

“I am pretty sure the festivals out of any dance club is the most fun and important time just because all the dance clubs get together and you practice the culture and the tradition of Ukrainian dance and then you also see other dancers and you can get inspiration,” she said.

Horal said many of the people who get into Ukrainian dancing tend to stay involved with the activity for a long period of time.

“I started in grade 2, but there [are] some people who start at the age four and five and go all the way to the point when they graduate and then further on go join an adult group,” she said.

Some dancers get advice from their instructor (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn