Tuesday Ukrainian Jam Session

amk2013

Well after hearing about this great group of guys from Ukraine arriving to play at the Vegreville Ukrainian Festival this year,  I finally met them!  Today at Calgary's commemoration event for the Enemy Aliens Exhibit in Banff (sorry,  it was impossible to get there due to the rain), the gentlemen musicians played for the reception program.  Great fun and entertainment!

If you are in Edmonton on Tuesday, June 25 - or you can get there for the evening - you could be part of Edmonton's largest Ukrainian jam session!



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Bring your favorite instrument - large or small, make sure your voice is well....hydrated.  Song books will be provided for all, so you don't have to feel self conscious about forgetting the words.  Join in this huge sing-a-long, it will be like you never left summer camp!  You can purchase drinks and munchies there. 

This is an evening performance of Ukraine's Darmohrai group from Vinnytsia Ukraine, and Edmonton's largest Ukrainian jam session!  Come for the entertainment, come for the fun, and remember you are helping Darmohrai continue its tour to big and small places across the Canadian prairies - little places needing that Ukrainian uplift! 

See you Tuesday - Tickets are available at the door! 

Osvita Ukrainian Summer Immersion Program

Baba's Kitchen at Osvita 2012
recognize the Calgarian?

Calgary has a lovely Ridna Shkola program that includes history, culture and language, even Ukrainian 10, 20 and 30.  But at the time when my daughter was in Ridna Shkola, to finish her high school credits she needed to go to Edmonton for the Osvita Summer Immersion Program.  Without reservation, it was a good choice.  She met new friends, discovered a few things about living away from home, accomplished some academic learning and generally had a great time.  Many of the friends have become what she calls "forever friends".  It's like having Ukrainian friends puts them into a special category - beyond going for coffee, or seeing a movie together, it's a part of your extended family.

You may not know about St. John's Institute in Edmonton but it is a great Canadian success story that should be shared!  Way back in 1918, St. John’s Institute was organized under the name M. Hrushewsky Ukrainian Institute (named after a great Ukrainian historian, writer, and statesman, Mykhailo Hrushwsky-1886-1934). An autonomous institution with its own character, St. John's Institute is affiliated with the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League of Canada known as S.U.S. Almost a hundred years later, it has lived up to community expectations and is a leading Orthodox Christian and Ukrainian-oriented residential centre fostering youth and their development.

St. John's Institute has continued the great SUS traditions and produces wonderful educational, spiritual, cultural, and outreach programs while operating a student residential centre for the Canadian and Ukrainian community.

One of the Institute's prize programs, Osvita,  had another successful program this summer 2012 in Edmonton.  From the pictures it is obvious the participants enjoyed learning in such a supportive environment.  The newly renovated St. John's Institute is simply top class, but the old Institute vibe is still there, warm hearted and embracing, a family away from home, your Ukrainian family away from home! 

Osvita 2012 participants from BC to Ontario improved their fluency in Ukrainian, cooking, dancing, singing, bandura lessons (with Andrij Hornjatkevyc) and more! Special events included fieldtrips to the Edmonton Holodomor Monument, the Vegreville Ukrainian Pysanka Festival, Alberta Branch of the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Castle Mountain Internment Camp and Banff. Guest speakers included the former Premier Ed Stelmach, and Ukrainian radio announcer Roman Brytan.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone at Osvita - see you all next year at Osvita 2013!! 

Alberta Summer Ukrainian Dance Programs 2012



Chelsie Dowler/Rocky View Weeklly

Ukrainian dance sisters, Kassidy and Kierra Bayda pose in costumes they wore at the Southern Alberta Ukrainian Dance Festival, March 17, at Bert Church Theatre. http://www.airdriecityview.com/article/20120314/ACV0302/303149955/0/acv

Both my daughters participated in Ukrainian dancing, but it seems I missed the Southern Alberta Ukainian Dance Festival this year!  In the past I recall great performances, super adjudicators, family and friends all there to pass on a love of Ukrainian dance, a love of Ukrainian culture, the community of Ukrainian friends!  Even now one of my daughters' friends is a girl she danced with a while back. 

The story goes this way.  My daughter and her friend were the silly girls in Ukrainian dancing, couldn't stop talking.  Had fun!  Enjoyed the learning, but really enjoyed the company.  So they danced into their teens, but couldn't remember when they met.  My daughter was looking at photos from when she was very little.  Turns out this friend was a little girl from my daughter's first Ukrainian dancing lessons, when she was a preschooler!  Turns out that the friendships you make through Ukrainian dancing are frequently the ones that follow you through life. 

If you haven't yet filled your August with Ukrainian Camp ideas, here is another one that is sure to please your young Ukrainian Dancer!!  ALTANETS'!  For summer dance workshops featuring exceptionally qualified dance teachers from Ukraine, this is Alberta's tops!  Teachers are members of this Canadian Ukrainian Dance Academy (http://www.cudacademy.com/) with a proven dance curriculum, and leveled programs for growth in dancing ability!   Alberta Ukrainian Dance Association (http://www.abuda.ca/) again presents its annual Ukrainian Summer Dance Program.  Workshops to improve technique, learn about the dance styles of various regions and styles, and learn about the Art Form that is Ukrainian Dance in Canada!!

Meeting other Ukrainian dancers from across Alberta and the provinces of Canada, enjoying Ukrainian dancing together - what fun!  The cultural program includes crafts, songs, and fun activities to help dancers capture the Ukrainian spirit in a Canadian setting! 

WORKSHOP #2: OVERNIGHT CAMP
CAMP OSELIA, LAKE WABAMUN, AB
AUGUST 5-10, 2012
INSTRUCTOR: VOLODYA MAKAROV
PRICE: $395