Ivana Kupala

For those of you who do not know about the St. John’s - Ivana Kupala festival, this is the original pagan midsummer night. In pre-Christian Ukraine, the festival was really a fertility rite that was supposed to assure a good harvest. (Kupalo was believed to be the god of Love and of Harvest. He was personified as the earth’s fertility — RJO). From the descriptions in ancient chronicles it was rather wild, featuring all kinds of sexual excesses… in other words, a lot of fun.

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Folk! Ukrainian Dance Documentary

The greatest film about Ukrainian folk dancing ever made! It follows the unique, high-flying ‘underground’ world of Ukrainian folk dancing in present day New York City. An often funny look at what its like to grow up in a Ukrainian-American community, keeping ties to your heritage and culture in an increasingly modern world (including speech of Roma Pryma Bohachevsky).

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Folk is not dead: Petrovychi band from Vorohta

Petrovychi folk band from Vorohta visited Ivano-Frankivsk before final record of their first album. This time they played with not full staff (only cymbaly and sopilka).
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