The Manitoba Ukrainian Dance Festival strives to create an experience that will allow dancers and instructors to grow and develop under the constructive criticism of our accomplished adjudicators Sonya Horner & Vasyl Kanevets, while having the opportunity to perform for an audience in a theatre atmosphere. The Festival will be conducted in a professional manner where all aspects of theatre etiquette will be applied to the dancers’ onstage performance, backstage organization and audience members.
Saturday evening of the Festival concludes with our Showcase Performance, which is open to the public. The Showcase gives award winning performers from the Festival an opportunity to dance again, and accept their awards and scholarships. The Showcase performance includes the highly anticipated Hopak competition during its second half.
Saturday evening of the Festival concludes with our Showcase Performance, which is open to the public. The Showcase gives award winning performers from the Festival an opportunity to dance again, and accept their awards and scholarships. The Showcase performance includes the highly anticipated Hopak competition during its second half.
2018 Adjudicators
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Sonya Horner brings vast experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm to the art of Ukrainian dance, and is excited to be part of the Manitoba Ukrainian Dance Festival.
Beginning her formal dance training at age four, Sonya began studying Ukrainian dance, ballet, tap, and jazz. She competed at many festivals and performed in many productions and ballets. Throughout her training, she has studied and completed RAD ballet Advanced II level, as well as CDTA tap and jazz examinations. In her Ukrainian dance career, she became a company member and later a soloist during her 15 years with the Pavlychenko Folklorique Ensemble. While performing with PFE, Sonya gained extensive knowledge about stage dance, theatre production, and folk dance. She was able to tour within Canada, the United States, and abroad, including Ukraine twice. She is now the répétiteur and Ballet Mistress for Pavlychenko. Sonya continues to learn more about Ukrainian dance by working alongside the Artistic Director of Pavlychenko, Mr. Serhij Koroliuk, and attending workshops within Canada and abroad. Most recently in the summer of 2012 and 2013, she has travelled to Ukraine to study and train with renowned artists and masters of Ukrainian folk dance, gaining more knowledge of costuming, music, history, and folklore. In 2000, Sonya’s love of dance inspired her to begin teaching extensively around Saskatchewan. She began teaching all genres of dance, but now focuses on ballet and Ukrainian dance. She currently teaches at four dance clubs in Saskatchewan, as well as doing choreography for many others and teaching summer workshops in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba. In 2010, she became the Ukrainian Dance Outreach Coordinator for the Ukrainian Canadian Congress-Saskatchewan Provincial Council, working as a liaison between the organization and the Saskatchewan Ukrainian dance community. She organized summer dance workshops for young dancers, as well as seminars for dance instructors and volunteer members. Professionally, Sonya has a degree in Psychology from the University of Saskatchewan, and works with youth at risk in Saskatoon. |
Mr. Vasyl Kanevets, born in Kyiv, Ukraine, began his dancing career at the age of five with the children's folk dance group at the Kyiv Central Palace of Pioneers. His extensive dance experience lef him to the State Ballet Academy of Kyiv, where he received his Professional Dancer Diploma. Subsequently, he attended the Kyiv State Institute of Culture where he completed his Ballet Masters Degree with Honours in 1985.
In 1995, Mr. Kanevets moved to Canada where he continued to work as a professional dance instructor and choreographer. In addition, he has held various positions with, and is currently the Co-Artistic Director of the Vaganova Dance Society in Edmonton. From 2005 until 2016, Mr. Kanevets was the Artistic Director of the Tryzub Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. His choreography was characterized by intense, technical, and original dances with great audience appeal. During his tenure, Mr. Kanevets staged touring shows for the Ensemble in Yonkers, New York, Las Vegas, Nevada, Queretaro, Mexico, Istanbul, Turkey and La Chorrera, Panama. He also created original choreography for several joint performances of the Ensemble with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He also was an instructor with the Tryzub School. Currently, Mr. Kanevets is an instructor for the Yatran Dance Academy in Edmonton, Vykroutas Ukrainian Dance School in Calgary, and Avrora Ukrainian Dancers in Fort McMurray. |
Manitoba Ukrainian Dance Festival Information:
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Important Dates:
January 18, 2018 - Entries Due February 2, 2018 - Last day to make changes to entries. March 1, 2018 - Workshop registration deadline March 16 - March 18, 2018 - Festival dates | ||||||