Svitlo: Discover The Light Within, Vohan Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. Photo supplied.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Ukrainian folklore, the mythology of a rich and ancient culture, comes to life, on a grand scale, in the show that arrives on the Jube stage Nov. 28.

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Svitlo: Discover The Light Within is the work of the Vohon Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. And Larissa Poho, one of the company’s artistic directors and one of the creators of Svitlo, says “it’s what happens with artists who are into folklore and video games and Marvel movies….” And it has something in common, too, with the work of the Japanese animation studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke).

The story Poho and her writing partner Matt Karpiak have fashioned for Svitlo is “a hero’s journey, an epic quest through darkness to discover light….” Which She undergoes a transformation, as she fights to return the light back to her home, which has been plunged into shadow when the Moon gains ascendancy over the Sun.”

In its own original, theatrical way, as she points out, the new dance-theatre piece, 50 performers strong, celebrates Ukrainian arts — stories, dance, song, folk art — as way to share Ukrainian identity, a medium for cultural resistance, resilience, and hope In a dark and oppressive world. “And it doesn’t shy away from the darker elements of our folklore, “the myths and legends of an oppressed and war-torn people.”

Svitlo: Discover The Light Within, Vohan Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. Photo osupplied.

“Matt and I had never seen a Ukrainian dance production that showed the darkness of our folklore,” says Poho. “Let’s not shy away from loss, from death,” they decided. The Rusalky, for example, the Ukrainian version of the alluring mermaids who appear in many cultural traditions, have their nasty side (“well, they do drown people and they’re terrifying,” says Poho casually).

Some of the creatures of Ukrainian folklore have a certain lightness (like the Poterchata, Ukrainian will-o-the-wisps) or a humorous quality, like Ukrainian household spirits. “They can be helpful; if you have good manners and are nice, they might just tease you.” Taking its cue from the world, the Ukrainian folkloric repertoire is marked by a constant “interplay of light and darkness,” Poho says. She quotes the Ukrainian national anthem, a poetic tribute to Ukrainian resilience: “our enemies will vanish like dew in the sun….”

Edmonton is a city of many Ukrainian dance ensembles, “each with their own culture, their own aesthetic.” Three years ago Poho, who notes that Edmonton is “the Ukrainian dance capital of Canada,” found herself particularly drawn to Vohon, mainly because “they love theatricality,” she says. “They love stage magic. They love fog, and fire (in fact, Vohon means fire in Ukrainian), and stage narrative…. Their core values are about inclusivity, and fun, in addition to their technical excellence.”

The love of theatricality is the through-line of Poho’s own amazingly multi-faceted career as a dancer, choreographer, actor, playwright, singer, musician, musical director and arranger, designer, visual artist. And Svitlo, which plays Grande Prairie, Calgary, Saskatoon and Regina before arriving in Edmonton Nov. 28, is a kind of manifesto for a multi-disciplinary artist like Poho. She’s been “part of the story crafting, choreography, direction, some costume and set building.” She’s the lighting designer and she’s also the stage manager, calling the multitude of cues that take a huge cast through mountains, villages, enchanted forests where the tree move, the bottom of a river … a journey of non-stop action in changing locations.    

“Matt (Matt Karpiak) and I wrote this show together two years ago, in his kitchen. And then we hired (Saskatoon-based) composer Jordan Welbourne to create a score.” Most Ukrainian dance companies often enlist their creative teams, including costumers and designers, from Ukraine, Poho says. “But since we are a diaspora community, and we want to support our own, we decided that for this production, we’d have Canadian-Ukrainian artists build the show. Our dancers themselves (there are 45 in the core company, ages 16 to mid-30s) stepped up as costume and scenic designers, and built everything themselves.” Poho was delighted: “I did the preliminary work, the research and sourcing, and they took it and ran!”

It’s been a skill-expanding experience for the Vohon dancers. One took stilt-walking lessons especially for the show, for example, and performs four feet off the stage as the river guardian. Morgan Yamada led fight and stunt training workshops with the cast.

Gerdan Theatre, Svitlo: Discover The Light Within, Vohan Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. Photo supplied.

For the first time in Vohan’s 37-year history, “we are collaborating with a folk ensemble from Ukraine…. Eight top artists, five women and three men, from the popular Gerdan Theatre, based in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi, are integrated into the storytelling of the show. In one striking scene they’re the dryads (tree spirits) who move the trees through the enchanted forest as they sing.. “The sound is amazing, other-worldly,” says Poho. “When they sing they sound like 40 people.”

“They’ve never collaborated with a dance group, and Vohon has never performed with live vocalists. So for both Svitlo is a big first.” The Gerdan artists are all fluent in English, but Poho has conducted rehearsals in both languages, “so they’d feel more at home.”

Poho, who encountered the Gerdan ensemble on one of her trips to Ukraine, started Ukrainian dance at age four. “Such a huge part of my life.” Her entry point into theatre was theatre design at the U of A. After that, it was musical theatre at MacEwan (“I’d never performed in a musical or sung in English before”). And she makes an extraordinary accumulation of theatrical skills sound inevitable. “Every step came up organically for  me,” she says, casually. “I love storytelling. I’m interested in how do we tell the story? How do we get all the elements together to support the story?”

Poho, a busy theatre designer and musician whose own “Ukrainian kitchen party” show Moonshine sold out every performance at last summer’s Fringe, has gathered a team of her fellow theatre professionals to help bring Svitlo to the stage. “This is me bridging two worlds. It’s Larissa’s heart on the stage.”

“It’s very important to me to share Ukrainian stories in an accessible way…. And it’s important for my community to see that our stories deserve to be told to a wider audience,” says Poho. “They belong outside community halls and in the bigger community, on the world stage…. Everyone has a connection to a folk tradition, a heritage, global lore. I try to tap into this universal concept of belonging.”

PREVIEW

Svitlo: Discover The Light Within

Theatre: Vohon Ukrainian Dance Ensemble with Gerdan Theatre

Written by: Larissa Poho and Matt Karpiak

Where: Jubilee Auditorium

When: Nov. 28

Tickets: ticketmaster.ca