Meeting with Sarah Reaume

Today I met with my good friend Sarah Reaume at the University of Windsor. Sarah knows a lot about Ukrainian culture as her Great-Grandmother was born in the Ukraine. Sarah has done Ukrainian dancing for a number of years with the Windsor Barvinok Ukrainian dance group.  During our meeting Sarah taught me a few dance steps from the Ukrainian dance called pryvit. The pryvit is a welcome dance where the bread and wheat are presented to the audience. The bread and the wheat symbolize the land’s fertility in the Ukraine. The pryvit is slower than the hopak and kolomainka, which are high-energy dances performed after the pryvit. These three dances are traditionally performed at an Easter celebration after church. I could not believe how much energy and stamina Ukrainian dance requires! I look forward to practicing the dance steps while burning some calories in the process! I took Irish dancing lessons for a few years when I was younger and it was interesting to compare the two dance cultures. In Irish dancing the hands and arms are rigid at the sides, whereas in Ukrainian dancing the arms and hands are required to move. 

Sarah brought pieces of her dance outfit to our meeting, which included a red beaded necklace, a headpiece (called the vynok), and a blouse (called the poltava). The headpiece was so beautiful and elaborate…it was fun to try it on. Sarah also brought some pysanky, which are hand painted Ukrainian Easter eggs. Pysanky are painted using a wax-resist method, which requires a steady hand a lot of patience. Sarah explained that the day before Easter, Ukrainian families bring an Easter basket containing pysanky, paska (Easter bread), and other items to be blessed by a priest the day before Easter. Monica and I plan to make a Ukrainian Easter basket and post pictures on this blog…stay tuned! Finally, Sarah taught me how to say Happy Easter in Ukraine..
                                                                       Христос воскрес! Воістину воскрес!
                                                                       Chrystos voskres! Voistynu voskres!
                                                                       Christ is Risen! He is Indeed Risen!

Thank you Sarah for the time you spent teaching me about Ukrainian culture and allowing me to borrow your dance outfit and pysanky!! :)

Victoria Turner