Submitted by:
Nicole Clouson |

The Dolyna Dancers once again performed to a packed house at the Annual Dessert Concert on April 25th at the SVRSS. The “Pryvit” or “Welcome Dance” gave the audience a glimpse of what the evening would hold.

Click any picture for a larger version.

This dance included several Ukrainian regions, each with a different costume and steps with Poltavski, Bukovanian, Volyn and this year the new region, Moldavian. The traditional Hospodar and Hospodynya (Host/Hostess) were presented the bread and wheat by Sara Parsons and Taliah Davey. The presentation of the bread and wheat is to give blessing and good health to the audience. This year the Hospodar/Hospodynya were Murray & Vena Parsons and Mary Adamowski.

The remainder of the evening continued with exceptional performances by all of our talented dancers from our Sadochuks which is the youngest group (youngest dancer 3 years old) all the way up to the senior group.

Every dance showed of various regions of Ukraine that they have worked hard at learning all year. This year a new dance included all the boys from the Junior group to the Senior group and they all entertained the crowd with a little comedy mixed in with some challenging steps.

During the intermission the audience was treated to some delicious desserts prepared by Doug Chapman of the SVRSS and his students. There was also a silent auction with some great prizes that were drawn throughout the evening.

A special presentation was also made to Sara Parsons, who will be graduating this year. Sara’s grandparents were also the Hospodar/Hospodynya of the evening.

Congratulations on 8 years with the club and we wish you the best.

The grand finale of the evening, the Hopak, performed by our Senior group left the crowd with a standing ovation.

As the curtains closed, the entire group gathered on stage for the Kolomeyka, and this gave each dancer a chance to show off some steps once again. Not once, but twice at the dancers request!

One little first-timer enjoyed it so much she didn’t want to leave the spot light!

A HUGE thank you to our talented dancers for a great performance and of course to their families for their dedication this past year. Thank you to the club’s executive and committees that make the club run smoothly and for all of the community support that is shown to the Dolyna Dancers.

And mostly thank you to our amazing instructors, Joe Synk and Kelsa Unruh who instruct our dancers every week and extra weekend practices.

Their expertise in dance and great patience are very much appreciated!