Gord Yakimow, BC Ukrainian Cultural Festival Society.
Kvitka of Surrey took top honours in the two main competition categories in this year’s BC Ukrainian Cultural Festival: the Previt (Welcome Dance – the most culturally relevant and spiritually sensitive of all Ukrainian dance performances), and the Hopak (National Dance of Ukraine). The Hopak award was shared with Veselka of Victoria.
Of the sixteen trophies available at the annual Festival, Kvitka took home five. In doing so, the 71-member troupe, which toured and performed in Ukraine in the summer of 2018, re-established itself as the premier Ukrainian Dance company in the province … in that it also scored the highest marks in both top categories at Festival 2018.
A crowd of close to 1500 attendees took in the annual event held at the Heritage Park Educational and Cultural Centre in Mission on May 4.
They purchased works of arts and crafts and the latest in Ukrainian embroidered fashion-wear from some of the many vendors, dined on tasty Ukrainian fare, and watched the best Ukrainian dance performances available in the province in the complex’s Clarke Theatre.
Dressed in a wide variety of colourful costumes from all regions of Ukraine, three hundred dancers from all areas of the province, and from Seattle in the US, had their performances scored by Toronto-based adjudicator Vincent Rees. A former dancer, instructor, and choreographer, the highly-respected adjudicator also runs CobbleStone Freeway, a travel company which arranges dance tours to Ukraine.
“We were fortunate to have convinced Rees to come to our event this year,” said Darka Morin-Konik, the President of the Festival. “He is much-sought-after and a very busy man.”
The annual event is held on the first Saturday in May in Mission. Festival #25 will take place on May 2, 2020. Information is available on the BC Ukrainian Cultural Festival website: www.bcucf.ca.
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