The Benito Vesselli Dance Club

With a sold out crowd, the club was overwhelmed with the support from the community and surrounding area. Guests were entertained with live music played by Bill Macooh as they entered the hall for cocktails. All 28 Vesselli Dancers gathered to welcome everyone to Malanka 2024 and say Grace. A delicious and filling supper with perogies, cabbage rolls, meatballs, roast pork, dessert and more was catered by H&M Catering.

Starting the entertainment portion of the evening was the Ukrainian Choir filling the hall with beautiful Ukrainian Carolling.

The Pryvit performed by the Vesselli Dancers welcomed guests by offering bread, salt and wheat. Guests enjoyed 10 fast paced, high stepping performances including dances from the Transcarpathian, Volyn, Hutzul, and Poltava Regions of Ukraine.

Guest dances performed by Benito Shaker Misto Adult Dancers and Vesselli Alumni were enjoyed by all. Closing the entertainment part of the evening was a finale dance performed by the Vesselli Dancers.

The evening didn’t stop there with Blakey Twin Spin as DJ keeping the dance floor busy late into the night. The crowd gathered at midnight to ring in the new year and feasted on a large midnight lunch. Comments heard throughout the night included “feeling young again!”, “Great music variety to keep everyone of all ages dancing”, “amazing and impressive performances”, “incredible and filling supper!” and “I didn’t want the night to end”.

Throughout the night Vesselli Dancers collected Donations for the Cobblestone Freeway Foundation. The foundations mission is to provide Ukrainians in need with basic items such as salt, sugar, and rice to families, they have visited and supported schools in the Carpathian Mountains and supplied hand warmers and trench candles to Ukrainian Soldiers in the front lines.

The club received a donation from Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival in Dauphin for 2 weekend passes and a camping pass to award during the event. For every $5 donation made to the Cobblestone Freeway Foundation, guests could enter their names into a draw to win the passes.

An incredible $1245.00 was raised on behalf of the foundation and Kemi Bulycz was the lucky winner of the Ukie Fest Tickets.

Vesselli would like to thank the following businesses for helping make Malanka a successful event:

Everest Homes
Swan Pas
Redline
Vesselli would also like to thank the following people:

Bill Macooh for playing during cocktails
H&M Catering for volunteering their time preparing and cooking supper
Richard Stechyshyn for baking and donating 568 buns
Blake Bulycz for volunteering to be MC and DJ for the evening
Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival for the weekend passes
Head Instructor and Choreographer Amanda Bulycz and Assistant Instructor Austin Spencer
Ukrainian Choir, Shaker Misto Adult Dancers and Vesselli Alumni
Vesselli Dance Families and all the volunteers who helped work the bar and any other jobs before, during and after the event
All who attended the event and supported by purchasing tickets, 50/50, and donating
Benito Vesselli Dance Club looks forward to hosting everyone again in 2025!