The Virsky Ukrainian Dance Company came to the UW-Platteville campus on Oct. 12, and performed at the Center for the Arts.

Photographs by Stephanie Coren


On Oct. 12 in the Center For the Arts, the Virsky Ukrainian Dance Company performed various works of Pavlo Virsky.

According to their official Web site, this group is dedicated to one person’s particular work in expanding Ukrainian dancing. This man’s name is Pavlo Virsky, and he spent most of his life perfecting the art of acrobatics and Ukrainian dancing.

One of his most famous works of art is the Cossack dance, a men’s dance where dancers are positioned balancing on their toes with their knees bent. He envisioned this dance with a lot of action, so he taught it that way.

At the performance these dances were performed with many leaps, jumps, leg extensions and minimal standing straight up.

The women also performed a piece by themselves, incorporating twigs to add a poetic feel.

Ukrainian dancing was based on age-old poetry put to music. The music was then interpreted into dancing and thus, Ukrainian dancing was born. These dances are made up of acrobatics, bright colors, traditional wools, billowy sleeves and lots of movement.

Most dances were paired dances with the men and women doing lifts, stomps and jumps. This group used the whole stage when it performed, twirling across the stage.

“It was impossible to take your eyes off of the performance, you never knew what was going to happen next, and you didn’t want to miss the next movement,” Natalie Rausch, criminal justice major, said. “It was so intricate and bright.”

“Virsky is playing in major theatres across the country,” John Hassig, director of performing and visual arts said. “Platteville has an amazing stage, and our reputation of having great audiences for artists is growing among agents and touring ensembles.”