A celebration marking a quarter-century of Ukrainian festivities will take place in Vernon next month.
The Sadok Ukrainian Dance Ensemble invites all to the Okanagan Ukrainian Festival on May 25, when traditional music, dance and Ukrainian festivities will be on full display at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre starting at 2 p.m., with admission by donation.
This year, Sadok is celebrating 25 years of sharing its Ukrainian-Canadian culture, and the event will feature special guests Pokotillo Ukrainian Dancers of Kamloops, Dolyna Ukrainian Dancers of 91大黄鸭 and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Thompson Okanagan Branch Choir.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress Thompson Okanagan Choir was formed in the fall of 2024. Ukrainian Christmas carols were performed in the community during the holiday season along with a performance at the Sadok New Year's celebration.
The Sadok ensemble is a local dance theatre troupe that pushes the boundaries of its unique art form by entertaining and educating its audience about its Ukrainian-Canadian heritage. The ensemble has performed throughout the Okanagan, Vancouver, Alberta and Los Angeles. They travelled to Ukraine in 2006 to study at the Virsky State Ensemble summer dance program and in 2008 they performed at Disneyland, California, where they shared their culture with the world.
This year's storyline is about the salt peddlers 鈥� "Chumaky." This traditional form of merchant organization took place in 1170. Prince Mstislav Izyaslavych of Kyiv appealed to itinerant merchants and soldiers at the same time to defend the roads from Kyiv to the sea. The first mention of the Cossacks (a letter dated 1499 in Kyiv) is the first mention of the Chumaks merchants.
Chumaks traded salt, which was brought to Ukraine from the Crimea, the Black Sea and Azov coasts, from Galicia, Donetsk and the Volga region.They also sold handicrafts, honey, wood, tar, tobacco, dried fish and vodka, among other items.
Chumak songs reflected their lifestyle. Behold these lyrics:
"And here are Chumak carts on the road:
The carts squeak, the yoke rumbles,
Gray oxen wink,
They are followed by young Chumaks,
Whip are waved."
As a tribute to the grandfather of Ukrainian dance in Canada, Vasile Avramenko, Sadok dancer Porter Johnson will perform his famous signature, "Whip Dance." Porter plays a lost Chumak in this theatrical dance story when he is separated from the Chumaky wagon train. He continues on the trading path hoping to catch up to his fellow merchants, but along the way he encounters varius people to trade with in villages ... and falls in love.
This is the 30th theatrical dance and music production choreographed by artistic director Andrea Malysh.
"As the war rages on in Ukraine, Ukrainian dance gives us strength to carry on and support our friends and families back in Ukraine," said Malysh, president of the Thompson Okanagan Branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. "As donations are vital for humanitarian aid, Sadok will also be happy to receive donations to the Canada Ukraine Foundation Humanitarian Aid Fund."
