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BEST UKRAIN DANCERS PROFILES
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Ukrainian
dance refers to the traditional folk
dances of the peoples of Ukraine.Today, Ukrainian
dance is primarily represented by what ethnographers,
folklorists and dance historians
refer to as "Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dances"
which are stylized representations of traditional
dances and their characteristic movements
that have been choreographed for concert dance
performances. This stylized art form has so permeated
the culture of Ukraine that very few purely traditional
forms of Ukrainian dance remain today.
Trypillian clay vessels,
dance has been performed in the lands of present-day
Ukraine since at least the 3rd
millennium BC. It has been assumed
that up to the introduction of Christianity in Kievan
Rus' in 988, dance
served a very important ritual function in the lands
of present-day Ukraine. Pre-Christian rituals
combined dance with music,
poetry, and song. Remnants of these
ritual dances which survive in limited
form today are the Spring Dances.
These religious ritual
dances proved to be so strongly ingrained
into the culture of the people prior to the introduction
of Christianity, that rather than attempting to eliminate
them, Christian missionaries incorporated
Christian themes into the songs and poetry which accompanied
the dancing, using the dances to
spread their religion, as well as enabling millennia-old
steps and choreographic forms to continue to be passed
down from generation to generation.
By the turn of the
eighteenth century, many of these traditional
dances began to be performed, or referred
to thematically, by a blossoming theatrical
trade. Peasant or Serf Theaters entertained
the subjugated native peoples of present-day Ukraine,
who remained relegated to lower social classes in
their own homelands, while their foreign rulers often
lived lavishly in comparison, importing foreign entertainers
and their dances.
Best Ukrain Dancers
Igor Youskevitch
Irina Dvorovenko
Olga Khokhlova
Pavlo Virsky
Serge Lifar
Svetlana Zakharova
Ulyana Lopatkina
Valentin Chmerkovskiy
Vasyl Avramenko
Vasyl Verkhovynets
Vladimir Malakhov
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