Academic literature on the topic 'Ukrainian Folk dancing'

In this article we take into consideration the integrative mechanisms of influence on the forming the learners artistic skills. We can differentiate the following aspects stimulation of folk dancing art such as. The spiritual-integral attitude to the achievements of the traditional national culture, the understanding of the symbols, the realization of the emotionally figurative content of the Ukrainian people's myth poetical creation.

The state and prospects for the development of contemporary choreographic art significantly increase interest in the study of dance folklore of Ukraine. The 21st century opens up new opportunities for the study of Ukrainian dance in the context of the latest methodological approaches. This extraordinary issue causes serious controversy. Choreographic folklore is a system of endless creative process. In fact, the challenge for the researchers is to determine the place of individual folk fact in the whole dynamic system of its creative development. This is a rather complex task that cannot be ignored in the research process. When studying the choreographic folklore of Ukraine, we must constantly take into account its dynamic procedural nature as a whole. This phenomenon develops and functions in organic correlation with all elements of people’s life: its historical, social and labor experience, morality, traditions, ethical and aesthetic ideas. The whole course of studying the choreographic folklore of Ukraine demonstrates the complex and organic intertwining of signs of national unity, local specificity and development autonomy. The study of dance folklore is possible mainly through a thorough and detailed study of local choreographic traditions. Of course, in the present state of folklore, this position implies a very hard and time-consuming work. Material, that sometimes retains subtle traces of past years, requires careful differentiated analysis. The historiographical survey shows that, despite the numerous publications, the historical and cultural folklore and choreographic heritage of Ukraine, the center of which is located in the Museum of History of Ukrainian Choreographic Art, located in the small village Nadiia in Kirovohrad region requires a generalizing research. The introduction into the scientific circulation of archival data will significantly expand the scope of folklore-ethnographic research and give a truly historical and scientific coverage of the development of dance culture of the population of Ukraine. The materials collected in the museum reveal the possibilities of comparative characterization of choreographic folklore and cultural traditions as a whole. The exposition of each hall represents the cultural and historical events of the leading artists in the field of choreographic art, the creative path of well-known solo dancers, as well as the artistic retrospective of significant dancing groups who have introduced and continue to multiply and develop the heritage of Ukrainian choreographic art. Among the main tasks of the museum, the leading ones are the popularization of the dance art of Ukraine among contemporary youth, the discovery of the nature of Ukrainian folk dance, the process of its birth, formation and development, as well as acquaintance with a galaxy of leading masters of Ukrainian choreographic art. The Museum of History of Ukrainian Choreographic Art is systematically updated with new exhibitions on the history of the development of folk dance art of Ukraine, and constantly introduces the followers of the folk traditions of the founders of Ukrainian dance. Today, the Museum of History of Ukrainian Choreographic Art is a cultural, educational, research center, filled with the spiritual heritage of the Ukrainian people for many years. The conducted researches allow to ascertain the fact of extraordinary cultural value of the museum, its expositions and folklore-ethnographic content.

The paper deals with one famous plot on Ukrainian rushnyks. This is about a scene of beating a man by his wife and the appropriate inscription to it “A woman was beating a man taking him by the forelock”. Notwithstanding the fact that nowadays it is mostly perceived as a humorous scene, the meaning of it may vary up to the sacred one. Is it connected with the fact that Ukrainian rushnyks had been regarded as things of particular significance? The author traces the roots of this embroidered plot in popular culture, showing changing of senses according to the context. Oral culture (folk humorous and dancing songs, narratives, sayings), lubok literature and fictions, Ethnographical features of Ukrainian married men and women are taken into consideration. Also, the issue of renewing the old jokes is considered. When the comic scene became irrelevant or not enough humorous, embroideresses combined it with other scenes to make it more ridiculous. The author concludes that absolutely all folk meanings of one and the same plot have right to exist.

The article investigates ethnographic and educational dimension of functioning of music at folk holiday. The author considers national holiday as an integrated concept that, firstly, integrates a variety of types of art (music, fine arts, performing arts, dance, literature), secondly, is a combination of two cultures – the pagan and Christian. It is noted that folk holiday is a model of highly aestheticized everyday life of Ukrainian people. The author states that music art at folk holiday is represented in the form of choral music, dance songs, music for dancing, marching music, song and instrumental music for listening in the form of ensemble.It has been proved that functioning of professional, amateur choirs or just group singing is common for music content of folk holidays; Ukrainian folk song has always been the basis of that functioning.It has been emphasized that the music art at folk holidays is represented by national folk-songs in the form of dance songs. They consisted of three components: words, music and dance movements.Special attention has been given to the marching music, represented by greeting marches, procession marches, performed in appropriate situations of meetings, farewell, congratulations, and glorification.The article states that the folk holidays that are prevalent in Ukraine have an important pedagogical potential, since they give a child a coherent picture of the artistic view of the world, establish connection between art and life.The recognition of the leading role of folk music in the process of musical and aesthetic education of children is considered by the author as a key to the formation of a highly spiritual personality.The requirements for the organization and conducting of folk holiday have been presented in the article; the teacher’s basic tasks have been defined.

The article reveals the relevant aspects of the professional training of applicant of the first level of training within the higher education in specialty 024 «Choreography» which have been caused by the beginning of the military actionі in Ukraine. The publication actualizes the updating of the educational components which are oriented on the formation of readiness of the future choreographers for the teaching Folk-Stage dance within educational institutions of various types. The authors underlined the importance of the determination and highlighting of Ukrainian folk-dancing culture in the content of the discipline «theory and Methods of Teaching Folk-Stage Dance». This also requires the revision of the list of nationalities within this discipline’s content. The research work contains: the analysis of the problem field of the professional education of Bachelors in Choreography which was revealed in the scientific dissertations in 2021. It also contains the analysis of publications on Theory and Methods of Teaching Folk-Stage Dance; analysis of content of syllabuses from different higher educational institutions. These syllabuses were devoted to the Teaching Folk-Stage Dance as the particular educational component. The article has references on authors of scientific-methodical literature on Ukrainian Folk Choreography, links on video-lectures of prominent masters of Folk Dance from different countries. The authors described the content component of teaching Ukrainian Folk Dance considering the regional peculiarity and uniqueness of the educational-professional program «Choreography». It is grounded the updating of the content component of teaching students Folk-Stage Dance with the orientation on the exclusion of the cultures of countries-aggressors. The content updating of the Folk-Stage Dance must underline the regional component (analysis and acquaintance with the folk dances of countries-neighbors, acquaintance with the national minorities of Berdiansk region) and cultural Euro-integration of Ukraine (certain countries of the European Union). The article names forms and methods of teaching Folk-Stage Choreography in the online format, tested by the authors during the educational process. These form and methods proved their effectiveness in professional training of Bachelors in Choreography considering the standard of specialty 024 «Choreography». The importance of the scientific research is in the relevance of the revealed problem field, understanding and reaction of authors on the educational changes within the martial law in Ukraine, practical significance of the informational material within the professioanl training of Bachelors in Choreography. Key words: Bachelor in Choreography, Folk-Stage Dance, Ukrainian Folk Dance, Forms and Methods of teaching.

The matter about formulation, study and inveStigation process of the formulation of choreography culture in Ukraine as for example of Ukrainian ethnographic region of Lemkivshchyna is considered in the given article . The outlining of the matters of the importance of spreading and popularization of Ukrainian original culture, therefore the understanding and realization of the importance of saving the traditions of dancing Ukrainian culture in the modern world is done. The object of the article – to consider the eminent features of the national dancing culture of Ukraine on the basis of the example of the dances of Lemkivshchyna, and also their tendencies of the perception in the context of the integrated changes and globalization of world art space at the beginning of 21St century. The inveStigation formulating objects: the inveStigation of the choreography heritage of Lemkivshchyna and hiStorical facts which affected its formulation. The methodology of the inveSStigation: consists of approbation the methods of objectivity, hiStoricism in comparative and art cultural analysis of choreographic processes. Art hiStoric method – for learning the hiStory of the ethnic region of Lemkivshchyna and historical factors which influenced the formulation of the choreography culture of the lemky authority. The method of generalization – for working out the theoretical references, formulation personal summaries on the basis of processed literature and other possible references. The method of providing the scientific analysis – for the inveStigation of the ethnic region of Lemkivshchyna, segmenting it to several elements (geographic peculiarities, hiStory, lifeStyle, cuStoms, choreographic art). The scientific novelty of the given article deals with the extension of the concepts of the function of choreographic art in the formulation of the perception of the high-grade dance in modern science. Also it consists in outlining the expressive features in the dancing culture of Lemkivshchyna. Summaries. The choreographic and musical culture of Lemkivshchyna has its own and unique character, which reflects the traditions, hiStory and specification of this ethnic group. The principal features of the choreographic musical aspect of dancing culture of Lemkivshchyna concludes in few issues. The music is often played on authentic folk musical inStruments such as violins, trembitas, drakys and baradan. The clothes for traditional lemky’s dances reflect the cultural heritage and regional identity. The dancing culture of Lemkivshchyna represents social cultural context of the history of the given ethnos including its authority, belief, holidays and cuStoms. The dances can be performed during religious ceremonies, weddings, and other important occasions. Generally, the choreographic and music culture of Lemkivshchyna is multi-layered and colorful displaying the high range specter of traditions, beliefs and authorities bounds in the entire ethnical group. It suStains the important part of the cultural heritage of Lemkivshchyna that represents the uniqueness of Ukrainian choreographic art.

The development of the new history of Ukraine contributes to the fact that the using of folklore in various directions of modern culture (a process generally called folklorism) is constantly in an upward direction. In recent decades, there has been a growing public interest to folk music and revival folk performance as well. Although the history of Ukrainian reconstructive performance dates back to more than four decades, it remains almost unexplored, which justifies the relevance and scientific novelty of the proposed study. This is partly due to the fact that the scientific definition and demarcation of various phenomena of musical folklorism (and, accordingly, the targeted research interest in this subject) began to appear in Ukraine only in the 1980s. In spite of the fact that the history of Ukrainian revival folk performance spans nearly a half а century, the topic remains practically unexplored, which contributes to the relevance and scientific novelty of the proposed study. A scientific definition and demarcation of various phenomena of folklorism began to appear only in the 1980s (during the Soviet period the term folklorism was not popular). The purpose of the proposed study is to highlight the preconditions, the history of origin, development, directions, as well as achievements and prospects of modern Ukrainian reconstructive performance. In the process of achieving this goal, the following tasks were set and completed. The historical and contextual preconditions for the emergence of the reconstructive performance and the state of research on the topic were analysed. The history of the emergence and activity of scientific and ethnographic groups, within the context of activity centres, has been traced and described. An attempt was made to analyse the historical and sociological aspects of the phenomenon under study and to determine the prospects for its development. For this purpose, factographic, factual, analytical, synchronistic and diachronic comparative methods are used. This base makes it possible to reveal continuity, mutual dependence, and also to predict probable future perspectives and directions of development of the phenomenon under study. A phenomenon of a modern Ukrainian revival performance began in the late 1970s because of the activity of the Kyiv folk ensemble “Drevo” (“Tree”). It was primarily due to the activation of fieldwork and big passion for traditional singing among scientists. This initiative was soon picked up and therefore vocal, instrumental, and mixed folk reconstructive ensembles began to appear in some cities of Ukraine: “Muravskyi Shliakh” (Kharkiv) and “Rodovid” (Lviv). The ensemble “Nadobryden” (Kyiv) became the first reconstructive band of instrumental music. Thus, the activities of these several groups formed the stage of the origin and formation of Ukrainian revival performance, which lasted from the late 1970s until the mid-1990s. The “Drevo” ensemble is to be considered the founder of the revival authentic performance tradition, as well as it became an inspiration and example to follow for a number of ensembles of the younger generation emerging from the mid-90s. These are such ensembles as: “Hilka”, “Bozhychi”, “Volodar”, “Buttia”, etc. Another revival performance direction concerns educational and extracurricular institutions, where folk performance is studied and children’s and youth folk singing ensembles are organized. Among them Rivne State Humanities University is to be mentioned, where in the late 1970s and early 1980s folk ensembles “Horyna” and “Dzherelo” were formed. Other high educational institutions are Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts (“Kralytsia”) and Kharkiv State Academy of Culture (“Kupalonka”, "Gorlytsia" etc.). During the last decade, the public associations such as “Rys”, “Hurba” and dance association “Dryg” became the successors of the movement in a more interactive direction. Members of folk ensembles and associations organize workshops, including performing rituals, singing, dancing, etc. and create another cultivation area of folk music traditions.

The article attempts to generalize and supplement the notion of the phenomenon of the creative personality of the famous Ukrainian teacher-artist K. Vasylenko. Various aspects of his activity as a scientist, choreographer, teacher, researcher of dance art, organizer of cultural life in the country, founder of higher choreographic education in Ukraine are considered. His artistic and pedagogical ideas are systematized. The role played by K. Vaselenko in the processes of formation and development of Ukrainian folk-stage choreography has been established.The pedagogical experience of K. Vasylenko's activity in amateur dancing groups «Dnipro» and «Darnychanka» is analyzed. The didactic components of thecontent of the creative pedagogical process in the groups of amateur performances (political and mass work, educational and upbringing activities, stage work, concert activities, organizational and cultural-mass work, seminars of the creative group and public leaders of choreographers) are determined and grounded. The place of dance folklore in the system of education of dancers-amateurs has been established. The peculiarities of cooperation of the choreographer with the cultural-educational society«Ukraine», aimed at popularization of national culture in Ukraine and abroad, are revealed.The factors that determined the phenomenon of K. Vasylenko has been established: family upbringing; participation in amateur activities during schooling; cooperation with prominent Ukrainian figures of the 20th century; cultural and educational activities at the Dance and Honored Dance ensembles of the Ukrainian SSR «Dnipro» and «Darnychanka»; ethnographic research activity at the Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnography; scientific and pedagogical activity at Kiev State Institute of Culture; active cooperation with the cultural-educational society «Ukraine»; personal and professional self-improvement of the teacher throughout life.

The article states that the Ukrainian baroque art has become differentiated into the high, middle and lower stylistic levels. There were certain connections between them, and new art genres appeared on the verges of these levels. The problem of the connection between distinct stylistic levels of the Ukrainian musical baroque has not yet attracted the attention of researchers. The study examines the links between the Ukrainian school Christmas drama of the XVIIth– XVIIIth centuries and the puppet Nativity play theatre. It is noted that for the first time a comparison of these two kinds of theatrical art is drawn in terms of the use of a musical factor in them. It is established that the first act of the Nativity play drama is related to the high style of Ukrainian Christmas school drama. This is revealed on the basis of analysing the dramatic functions of a Choir in both school drama and Nativity play drama. A choir in these spectacles took an active part in revealing the Christmas story, playing the role of a character. What they had in common was the genre of spiritual chant with the syllabic versification. Despite its association with the high style of school drama, the Nativity play drama was a quite new theatrical genre that belongs to the middle stylistic level. Focusing on the folk environment, authors of the Nativity play drama intelligibly conveyed to a wide audience the sacred plot. It is noted that in the second act of the Nativity scene were adapted interludes of school dramas, which represented the lower stylistic level of the Baroque. In this act, a funny line came to the fore, and a musical component is marked by influences of the Ukrainian musical folklore with a predominance of its dancing variety. The interaction of folklore with the lower version of the Baroque had a great potential for the further development of the Ukrainian national theatre. Due to the fact that music was an integral part of the puppet Nativity play drama and played an important dramatic function, this theatrical spectacle, like some school dramas, had the features of the drama with music genre. Thus, school drama and Nativity play drama created the foundation, on which in the XIXth century, the Ukrainian dramaturgy emerged, with a significant role of the musical factor in it, which was essentially a drama with music.

Background. The last quarter of the 20th century – the beginning of the 21st century, marked in Ukraine by significant social changes, actualized the necessity to turn to eternal spiritual values of national culture, among which Taras Shevchenko’s creativity takes leading positions. During this time, a number of works appeared in Ukrainian musical and stage art that supplemented the domestic “Shevchenkiana” (a total of the works devoted to Shevchenko): the operas by O. Zlotnik, V. Gubarenko, H. Maiboroda, L. Kolodub). The tradition of embodying the image of T. Shevchenko was creatively developed by O. Rudianskyi. The significant role of choral scenes in his opera “The Way of Taras” led to their involvement in revealing the leading idea of the work: to show the main periods of the life of the great poet. Choral scenes are peculiarly organized in the time-space of the opera, gaining symbolic meaning. The disclosure of this symbolism becomes the key to understanding in the modern context of the historical role of T. Shevchenko’s life and work. The purpose of this study is to identify the symbolism of chronotope in the choral dramaturgy of the opera by O. Rudianskyi. The following events from the life of Shevchenko are presented in the opera «The Way of Taras» by O. Rudianskyi (1992, 2nd ed. 2002: the libretto by V. Yurechko & V. Reva): his arrival to Kiev from St. Petersburg after the graduation of the Academy of Arts, the activity in The Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, finally, the arrest and the exile. The composer uses the choral factor in full – almost every stage of the opera has choral episodes, which receive various functions depending on the development of the dramaturgy of the opera. O. Rudianskyi created the images of the Ukrainians peasants, young men and women, children, members of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, prisoners, soldiers -- by the use of male, female, children and mixed choir compositions. The opera includes: the "Ukrainian world", which obtains its characteristic precisely due to the presence of choral singing; the "Kazakh world", which is represented mostly by solo and dancing episodes; the "Russian world", which is presented through the spoken dialogues, orchestral fragments, choral recitation. The radical contrast in the depiction of Ukraine, the Kazakh steppes, and the St. Petersburg world creates to the chronotope changes in connection with the plot: Taras Shevchenko is free in Ukraine, he is not free in Russia and Kazakhstan. The opera-biography “The Way of Taras” almost for the first time at the Ukrainian musical stage emphasizes in the image of Shevchenko, who was a poet and a painter, the versatile of his creative personality. O. Rudianskyi introduces the method of artistic documentalism in revealing the events of T. Shevchenko’s life path, but along with the real people (Kostomarov, Petrov, Veresai), there are also fictional characters (the caretaker of the steppe – «Berehynia stepu»). Each of the pictures of the opera highlights a certain episode of the biography of the hero. The fragmentary character inherent in the opera by O. Rudianskyi makes it similar the opera “in four novels” «Taras Shevchenko» by H. Maiboroda and the opera-phantasmagoria «Poet» by L. Kolodub. Two female characters in the opera, Oksana and Zabarzhada, presents as a symbol of Taras’s unrealizable love. The image of Oksana – the first love of the poet – is created due to choreography, that makes it possible to define a ballet as another genre component of the composition. The development of the female theme involves both the women’s and the mixed choirs. O. Rudianskyi found a new approach to embodiment of the personality of the artist and poet in the first picture of the opera. This is the moment when T. Shevchenko is painting one of his picture on the bank of the Dnieper, reciting, at the same time, the lines of his immortal verse «Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyi» («The broad Dnieper is roaring and moaning»), which became a folk song. In the fifth picture of the opera it is being sung powerfully by the choir – all Ukrainian people. So, the poet is presented as a prophet and spiritual leader of the people. Inspired by the Poet, people spoke out against the tyranny of the authorities. T. Shevchenko’s prayer with a mixed choir «To me, O God, give love on Earth» («Meni zh, mii Bozhe, na zemli podai liubov») is the reminiscence of the first picture, where the Poet created his immortal verse (its reciting with the vocalization of the choir basses). Conclusions. Thanks to choral scenes in the opera “The Way of Taras” by O. Rudiiyansky, a single space-time is created, in which the composer gives to the choir a symbolic meaning. In the choral presentation, the song about Dnieper River sounds as a symbol of freedom of the Ukrainian people; the effect by choir “church bells” symbolizes the conciliarity of Ukraine; the Marche funebre is the personification of the soldier serve, and the words-symbols “path”, “movement” embody Poet’s fate, inextricably linked with the fate of the Ukrainian people. The symbol of the opera whole is the word-image “path”. The semantics of the path, the moving is revealed both on the stage and on the mental levels: the Dnieper waves are constantly moving, the peasants are going to work, the path of prisoners is endless, and human life itself is the Path...

In the complex and contradictory process of social and ethnonational progress of Ukraine, the study of the original creative potentials of the nation becomes especially important not only in the historical and theoretical, but also in the regional aspect. In the domestic research area, we can see the appearance of studies aiming to form a special field of research – the regionics, which is designed to reveal the uniqueness and originality of the cultural environment within a particular local unit. The diverse palette of movements, gestures and poses has a strong ethnic color, reflecting national characteristics, psychological stereotypes, specific regional and local features, various perspectives of rhythmical thinking of people living in the domestic territory. The system of pictorial means is traditional and publicly available to the ethnic community as a certain sign system within the national or regional tradition. Problems and tasks of the article lie in the field of art studies, which develop issues of folk dance, the relationship between general and ethnospecific, traditional and new. In this context, the idea of relying on the historical traditions of Ukrainian spirituality as a source of self-preservation and burst for new development is increasingly put forward. All this determines the objective need for scientific analysis of authentic dance samples, which have been the bearers of certain ideas and concepts for many centuries and reflect the main features of ethnic mentality, rhythmical thinking, and «spiritual flair» of the people. On the basis of literary sources involving developments in ethnochoreology, artistic features of Volyn folk dance, its ethno-national specifics, which are manifested in both choreographic folklore and professional art, are analyzed and characterized. The aim of the work is to investigate the trends in the development of choreographic culture of Volyn and the problem of the relationship between traditions and innovations, which directly affects the creative process of the interpretation of authentic sources. The research methodology is based on the principles of an integrated approach and the application of analytical, historical, cultural and comparative-typological methods. The scientific novelty of the development is that a comprehensive art study of the original dance art of Volyn has been conducted, and its place and role in the modern spiritual and socio-cultural space has been determined. Given the dynamics of cultural and historical processes of today, it has been concluded that the choreographic art of the Volyn region continues to develop in the context of the all-Ukrainian tradition and is a part of it. The study made it possible to identify such a distinctive trend as the appeal to the original folk art and the development of newborn forms of dance on this basis. In the choreographic culture of Volyn, the abovedescribed trend reveals a complex dialectic of the interaction of tradition and innovation, with the predominance of the traditional component.