At St. Michael’s Parish Hall the sound of Ukrainian folk music spills out the door and into the street.
With their May 27 performance date fast approaching, Nanaimo’s Vesna Ukrainian dancers are busy rehearsing a year’s worth of material for their annual year-end show at Malaspina Theatre. The program includes live music during costume changes.
The show comes only a few weeks after Vesna’s successful performance at the 23rd annual B.C. Ukrainian Cultural Festival dance competition in Mission. Facing off against 10 other groups from B.C. and Seattle, Vesna’s juniors, intermediates and seniors competed in eight dances and took home one gold and seven silver medals.
The award-winning dances will be among those presented by Vesna’s 28 dancers, who range in age from adults to four-year-olds.
Emily Toneff used to be one of those four-year-olds. She said when she was young a family friend’s daughter was involved in Ukrainian dance and it was suggested that she give it a try.
“I had lots of energy as a kid so they thought I’d be a really good fit, so I went to one practice and all of a sudden, just fell in love,” Toneff said, adding that she was drawn to “just how high-energy it was and there was so much partner work so you really had to build those relationships and those connections.”
Now, at 20, she’s dancing at the senior level and helping to teach the youngsters. She said it’s a “surreal” position.
“I can remember one of my first dance classes and all of a sudden, kids are looking up to me now and I know all my steps and it’s just crazy. It’s unreal,” she said.
Toneff is currently on the mend after breaking a bone in her foot at Mission, but she will still be dancing in the year-end show. The injury happened during her second dance of the competition, but with four more to go she got back on the dance floor.
“It was partially dislocated. One of my spin sets ended incorrectly and I just caught it wrong and, just, down she goes… You just you ice it while you can and you bandage it and away you go,” she said.
Looking back on the past year, Toneff said the Vesna dancers have grown a lot as a group and mastered new skills.
“Things that we were weak at in the beginning we can now do completely comfortably,” she said.
“We’ve also been able to integrate a lot of lifts into our dances so it’s just really awesome to get to that point because we’re so comfortable with each other. Like, we know the boys aren’t going to drop us. We know we can depend on each other.”
WHAT’S ON … Ukrainian dance concert comes to Malaspina Theatre on Sunday, May 27. Doors at 1:30 p.m., show starts at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10, children under six get in free.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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