Training with the Virsky Studio Dancers
We made it to the second episode of Vsi! We kind of surprised ourselves that we made it this far — we’re creative people who love to dream of and start projects but not follow them through. But here’s to hoping we’ve overcome that!
In this post, we’re going to give a bit of an overview of our experience training with one of Ukraine’s top folk dance ensembles.
Although, we should probably mention why we were even there in the first place. From September 2017 to June 2018, we took part in the Our Year in Ukraine cultural immersion program, which was offered by Cobblestone Freeway Tours, a Canadian tour company. Seven of us started off in the program, and five stayed the full year — a couple had some things come up so left a bit early.
We trained in five different cities for two months at a time. We started in Kyiv then went to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Lutsk, and Poltava.
In Kyiv, we trained with the Virsky Studio dancers. These dancers are in a two-year program that prepares them to audition for the Virsky company. For the dancers of the P. Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble (wow, that’s a mouthful), it is their job. And although they get paid to do it, many of them also have jobs outside of Virsky to support themselves and their families. Really, in general, many Ukrainians we met had more than one job, especially dancers, which is who we were most often surrounded by.
In Ukrainian dance, the style varies between groups. Maybe one group does a spin this way but another does it another way, or one group does this one thing with their arms while another group does something else.
Virsky is its completely own style of dance in itself, though of course it is rooted in Ukrainian folk dance. (You can watch videos of the group on its YouTube channel.) Pavlo Virsky and Mykola Bolotov founded the ensemble in 1937, and today, Myroslav Vantukh is the director. If you’re interested in more, you can read more about the company’s history here.
On October 3, 2017, the Our Year in Ukrainers saw Virsky perform and grabbed a pic with the legendary Pan Myroslav Vantukh, the director of Virsky.
In our experience, Virsky is the group that any Ukrainian dance enthusiast in Canada who has heard the term "Ukrainian dance" knows of. But the same can't be said for Ukrainians — a couple of the girls in the Virsky Studio said there have been times when they told someone they want to dance with the Virsky company, and that person had no idea what they were talking about.
Though Virsky is known as the National Ukrainian Folk Dance Ensemble, the dancers train in multiple styles, including classical ballet and character. Ukrainian dance itself is so varied — there are different styles of dance associated with different regions of the country — so it makes sense to learn different styles. Plus learning multiple styles just makes you a better dancer.
The Studio dancers we trained with were still in high school or university. When we were there, the youngest dancer was about 15 and the oldest was 24. Though lots of the dancers were from Kyiv, some moved to the city specifically to join the Studio in the hopes of making it into the company. And that hope actually came true for some of the dancers we trained with!
The level of dance in the Virsky Studio was and is very, very high. This was quite the adjustment for us, seeing as Virsky was our first stop during our year. Many of the Studio dancers train all their lives for this. Some of them grew up in the Virsky dance school, so even early in their dance careers they were introduced to not only quality instruction but also to the Virsky style. And others who were from outside of Kyiv also took additional dance classes than just Ukrainian — so maybe ballet, character, contemporary — or they studied in university, and so on. In any case, dance was a part of their everyday life for years.
So getting into this mindset of “dance is my life” was also an adjustment for us.
In Canada, I (Kaitlin) had dance rehearsal three to six hours a week. And then I practised on my own time, and just, well, thought about dance every day. But I didn’t grow up taking seven styles of dance from age three. And I did it purely for recreation. I started Ukrainian dance when I was five and took a couple years of ballet and lyrical in highschool. I’m an OK dancer, but I know I’m not the best. And, wow, was that ever rubbed in while we were in Kyiv.
For me (Hannah), it had actually been a year since I danced with an ensemble before I went to Ukraine. I was teaching a few times during the week and did a bit of dance on my own time after instructing, but even then, I wasn’t dancing minimum 18 hours a week — which is what we did in Kyiv.
So how did we fill those hours in Ukraine?
Ballet Class
From Monday through Saturday, we had an hour and 15 minutes of ballet, led by Oleksandyr Mykolayovych. The ladies had their own ballet class, and then the guys had their own, and we’d alternate start times.
Before ballet, the dancers would sprinkle water on the floor, which they said helped them get better grip, allowing them to maintain their turnout throughout class. (Hence the otherwise random watering can in this photo of Kaitlin with some Studio friends.)
Virsky dancers train under the Vaganova style of ballet. We Canadian dancers hadn’t really danced this style before, but we slowly got the hang of it. But, of course, every time we started to feel a slight bit of confidence in our knowledge of an exercise, the instructor changed it to make it harder.
In the ballet class, we started off with barre exercises then went on to centre work, including port de bras, pirouettes, and sautés (jumps). There were 22 girls in the Virsky Studio, and they split themselves into two groups to do the centre exercises. All of us Canadians just stood at the back and repeated the exercises with them every time — if our feet could stand it.
And then on Saturdays, the real fun happened. Instead of doing centre work in our ballet class, the instructor would lead us in a stretch. And boy did we stretch. We started with standing hamstring stretches, which were manageable enough, but then next thing you knew we were holding splits for a few minutes at a time, just dreading getting out of the position because we knew there was no way to do it gracefully.
The Studio dancers, and also other dancers we trained with throughout the year, seemed to stretch a bit differently than we do in Canada, in our experience — some of the stretches the Studio dancers did seemed hard on the joints to us. But also that might just be because they were new stretches to our bodies.
Anyways, we still tried our best, keeping in mind to not overdo it and remembering not to compare ourselves too much to the Studio dancers, who had been doing these stretches all their life.
After ballet, depending on the day, we’d have a character, technique, or choreography class. Also, in each of our classes, we had live music. For ballet, there was a pianist, and for character, technique, and choreography, there were one or two accordionists.
Having live music is and was amazing, and we admire and respect the musicians for their talent — and patience. The instructor might have asked them to slow down, to speed up, to stop, to start, to play it again. And the musicians did it perfectly without missing a beat.
Choreography Class
We had choreography class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and a half and on Saturdays for about 45 minutes, and they were led by Sergey Anatolyevich and Halyna Myroslavivna, the daughter of Myroslav Vantukh.
The studio dancers learn Virsky company repertoire, and the semester we were there they were learning Virsky’s Gypsy dance. When we started learning the dance, girls and guys had separate classes, since there are many combinations to work on individually. But when we knew the steps a bit better, we always had joint classes.
And just a note about how the classes were run — in our experience when working on a dance in Canada, we'll run through it and then break it down to clean it, making sure everyone looks the same. And then we'll run it fully through again after.
But it's not the same with the Virsky Studio dancers. We would run through the whole thing maybe once during the 1.5 hour rehearsal. We usually started from the beginning, and every few counts one of the instructors yells, "стоп!" (stop), and they would give corrections.
It does make sure everyone is doing the same steps, but to us, it didn’t really seem to build stamina. But we're talking about Virsky here, and they're clearly doing something right, so it works. It’s just neat to see the differences between ensembles.
Choreo class was pretty memorable right from the start. Halyna told us we had to make sure to know various spots in the dance in case anyone was absent, and then we'd have to step in. We thought we'd never actually have to step in since there are other studio dancers not cast in it, but sure enough, one day she called on us to fill in.
Each of us took the chance to jump in. And gosh was it terrifying. We knew the steps OK, but of course being put in a dance is different than doing it at the back because of travelling steps, partner work, and everything else. But the dancers were helpful, and since they stop every few counts for corrections, we were able to keep up.
The Virsky Studio dancers’ patience and willingness to help us learn deserves a huge shoutout. Also, these fine folk came over for Thanksgiving and then our going away party — 40-ish people sounds like the perfect number to host at an apartment gathering.
Rehearsal was mentally exhausting enough as it was, but being in the dance while people are speaking Russian and giving corrections and moving quickly all around you — that's a whole other level of mental exhaustion.
And then there’s this whole other layer to dance. You can’t just know the choreography — you have to dance the choreography. And if you can imagine gypsy dances, especially Virsky’s, then perhaps you can imagine the style and character the dancers have to bring into the piece.
I (Hannah) remember when I was filling in a particular spot, I knew that the girl I was filling in for was at the front and centre for what I like to call “the shimmy triangle.” In this section of the dance, the girls arrange themselves in a triangle at the back, and when it’s their turn, they run forward with power and have about 16 counts of shimmying their shoulders before they scatter.
As we were doing the dance, we got to the part where the girls line up at the back, about to go into our shimmy triangle. In that moment, I knew I could either do it full out and maybe feel silly but push my boundaries, or I could be shy and reserved and only sort of do it, good enough to get by.
But, I went for it. I’ll never forget the look on the instructor’s face when she saw me just give ‘er. She raised her eyebrows and smirked, in a “непогано” (not bad) kind of way. At the end of that class, she said something like, “Hannah has only done the dance once in her life, and she already understands the gypsy character better than you girls.” It was just a matter of pushing past my fears and going for it.
I got out of my comfort zone, and it was worth it. And at times, I like to be optimistic and think we Canadians even blended in … besides our back bends — the studio girls were parallel to the floor with theirs.
I was starstruck and inspired every day going to rehearsal, seeing company dancers and future company dancers. And dancing a company dance alongside people who will have careers with the company only amplified that feeling. It’s still hard to believe we trained with the Virsky Studio.
Technique Class
We had technique class on Wednesdays and Saturdays for about 45 minutes. Girls and boys had separate classes. For the girls, we started with turns across the floor. And the instructor, Serhey Anatolyevich, gave corrections to each and every one of us, not only while we were spinning but also afterward before we tried it again on the other side.
Sidenote from Kaitlin: I am so glad I wrote in my journal and on my blog while we were in Ukraine, because I wouldn’t remember so many of these details. So start taking notes of your lives, everyone.
During class, the accordionists seemed to know the speed each girl could turn. In general, it went from slow to fast spinners ... and then us, the super slow ones. But because of the in-studio musicians, we could all dance to the music since the musicians changed the tempo, rather than having to dance through the music like if we used a recording. Live music is also so great since the instructor doesn’t have to run around to start and stop the music.
One more thing about spinning in that class — and prepare to feel good about yourself. If you're a dancer or you've seen a dance rehearsal, you may know that, in general, dancers are weak at turning to the left. Well, believe it or not, so are some of the Virsky studio dancers! The first time we saw them spin to the left it was kind of comforting. It reminded us that even Virsky dancers aren't perfect — though they're just about perfect — and everyone has something to work on.
Here’s a fun turning over the left story for you: One time, we were doing an across-the-floor combo with four chaînés then two balances. And the studio dancers just weren’t getting it. But we were. So after, when the instructor was giving corrections, instead of going one by one like he usually did, he gave a general correction, or rather a general comment, to all the studio dancers. “Even the Canadians can do it!” he said. And you know what, we are going to take and celebrate that back-handed compliment for the rest of our lives.
Actually, that story didn’t end there. When we were close to being finished our time at Virsky, we did that exact same combo, and the instructor said something like, “You did this combo better when you first started here!” And he was referring to the fact that we seemed to have acquired some of the studio dancers’ style and habits he wasn’t fond of.
We never really knew if instructors were complimenting us or insulting the studio dancers. But we’ll take what we can get.
After across the floors and a couple turns in a circle, we would do stationary turns. One of the toughest things for us to master was the Virsky style of obertas, the classic Ukrainian turn, since it’s different than how some ensembles in Canada do it, or just different than what we learned growing up.
For those familiar with the step, rather than putting your leg to the front first before bringing it to the side, Virsky dancers puts it straight out and high to the side. And they close their foot in front of their leg rather than behind when they bring their foot to the ground. If that makes zero sense, watch this video starting at 3:38 to see what we’re talking about.
For the guys, technique class was basically a big Canadian-style kolomeyka (minus the Hutsul tower). They told the accordionist what tempo they needed, and off they went to the centre, working on their solo. Most of the time the guys would just be ready in a certain area of the studio. At the end of each solo, they would all shoot their hands up in excitement, hoping the instructor would point to them and give them permission to be the next practising soloist. At least, that was how it went when we watched it, but it might vary.
Character Class
We saved the best for last.
Our character class was like nothing we had ever done before. Yes, we had done character barre in Canada (character meaning it resembles traditional folk dance), but we had done Ukrainian character barre. But with the Virsky Studio, we did many styles, including Russian and Spanish.
Veryovka performs with a live band and choir. This is the ensemble’s Crimean Tatar dance. You can learn more about the history of Tatars in this video.
We could tell the studio dancers really liked the class and the instructor, Valeriy Oleksandrovych, who was the ballet master for Veryovka, a group that practises in the same building as Virsky and a group that we had the chance to see live — the show was amazing (here is the ensemble’s YouTube channel). In the Virsky studio character class, the dancers once again had huge smiles on their faces (yes, they were expected to because it's character class, but you could tell they were genuinely into it).
Class started with barre, and the instructor added onto the exercise every couple of weeks. All 40 or so Studio dancers had class together, and though it’s a big studio, they still needed to set up some extra barres in the middle of the floor.
One of our favourite parts of the character class — and part of the reason we loved the class so much — was when the instructor showed the exercise, since he's such an amazing dancer. And an amazing instructor, too. Before teaching any exercise, the instructor would show and perform it fully, and once he completed it, the studio would erupt into applause for him.
And so rightfully deserved!
During the first class, when the instructor showed us an exercise — a Spanish stamping one — we had no idea how we were ever going to do it. But he would break it down into shorter sequences, first showing the feet on the left and then the right, and then the arms if he thought we were ready for it. And then next thing you know we were doing it all together.
He was just motivating. He made us feel like we could do anything.
Hannah getting in a pre-practice Ukrainian study sesh with the help of a Studio dancer friend.
After barre, we went to the centre, where we mainly focused on Spanish dancing. Lots of it was partner work, but the boys and girls danced separately until they knew the exercises well enough to dance together.
For the Spanish exercises, we started with rolling our wrists while going through different arm and even finger movements. And it seemed to be a go-to thing for Valeriy to have us work on. He would have us put our hands in first position — for those who don’t know, first position looks like holding an invisible beach ball in front of your belly button — then we would roll our wrists out, first pinkies bending and facing outwards then ring fingers then middle fingers then pointers, and then we reverse and roll inward with our pointers leading the way. We’d even catch ourselves doing it randomly while walking on the streets. It was like the fidget spinner of our character class.
You know sometimes when instructors kind of make a jingle to help remember movements? For this movement, the instructor said "медленно, медленно, мягко, мягко" (slowly, slowly, softly, softly). He also said many other things in Russian that we did not understand, but hey, we picked up on those two words.
Which brings us to another point — in our experience, the dancers and instructors spoke Russian while at rehearsal, though some did know English, and they knew Ukrainian and would help us learn Ukrainian while we stretched before practice.
Back to the wrist rolling for a second. We would do this, rolling our wrists in and out, for minutes at a time. It was kind of like meditation, since you focused so hard on those simple movements. Plus, the instructor seemed to get us to do it after a difficult step that could be frustrating, and this simple exercise helped us to calm down and regroup our brains.
The instructor just really seemed to understand the students, including us. Even though Valeriy didn’t speak much English, and we didn’t speak much Ukrainian or Russian, he made us feel like part of the group. One class (and fairly early on), he asked us yearlong program participants to dance at the front. But how were we supposed to follow along if no one was doing the steps in front of us?! We managed, of course. We maybe didn’t do it the best, but we did it good enough. But also, being “the best” never mattered to us, and it still doesn’t.
Because what even is “the best” anyways? Is it about ability? Is it about passion? Is it about making mistakes and learning from them, and acknowledging you made mistakes and learned from them? Is it about standing in a studio with people you admire, people who are past and future honoured artists of Ukraine, and feeling their support when they look at you and give you a wink or a smile?
“The best” is what you make it to be. If you’re not “the best” dancer, if you’re not even a dancer, you can still have these noteworthy “best of” experiences related to Ukrainian dance and culture — or life in general. You just have to realize the beauty in learning, sharing, and experiencing what life has to offer.
So that sums up our time in Kyiv, training with the Virsky Studio dancers. If you want an overview of our year living and dancing in Ukraine, check out our post about our character shoes, where we share how they changed — and we evolved — during our year in Ukraine.
To listen to the podcast version of this post, click here.