Speech Renowned Dancer, Choreographer Roma Pryma-Bohachevs
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
INSIDE:• Congressional hearing on Ukraine and U.S. interests — page 3. • Lesia Ukrainka’s “Lisova Pisnia” to be staged in Cleveland — page 8. • Specialists discuss Ukrainian archives in U.S. — page 13. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXXII HE KRAINIANNo. 22 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2004 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine RenownedT dancer,U choreographer Former PresidentW Bush returns to Kyiv, Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky dies comments on “Chicken Kiev” speech by Roman Woronowycz national interest and not in self-interest Kyiv Press Bureau they avoided what could have been another Prague Spring,” noted Mr. Bush. KYIV – President George H.W. Bush, He compared Ukraine’s first president, notorious for his reference to “suicidal Leonid Kravchuk, to Lech Walesa, the nationalism” in what has come to be leader of the Polish independence move- called the “Chicken Kiev” speech, finally ment, and Vaclav Havel, the Czech explained his statement on his first trip Republic’s charismatic first president. back to the Ukrainian capital 13 years Mr. Bush made his remarks during a later, on May 21. 40-minute presentation to the students of “That’s not what I said,” explained the Kyiv State University in which he 41st president of the United States, refer- encouraged them to a life in public serv- ring to the statement, which he made in ice, volunteerism and charitable work. Ukraine’s capital just three weeks before Looking tan and fit, former President the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine Bush, who will turn 80 in June, called on declared independence in August 1991. the students not to become discouraged as “I encouraged them not to do some- Ukraine continued through the painstak- thing stupid. My speech here – if you ing process of building a democracy and look at it, if you read it – I said to restrain making the transition to a free-market from doing anything that would cause economy. He said he was sure that there them to react when things were going the were those who were “frustrated by the right way,” he added. problems of reforms and the checks and Mr. Bush explained that, indeed, balances of democracy that make because the Ukrainian leadership of the progress difficult,” but asked them to per- time acted carefully and with restraint the severe because “better days lie ahead.” country moved smoothly towards sover- He alluded to his much-publicized eignty and independence without what “thousand points of light program,” could have been a bloody encounter with which he espoused during his presidency Moscow. “Because your leaders acted in the (Continued on page 22) Roman Iwasiwka At Yalta summit, four presidents Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky during a 1997 performance by her students at Soyuzivka. PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Roma Pryma- Winnipeg Royal Ballet and a soloist with discuss Single Economic Space Bohachevsky, internationally renowned the Ruth Sorrell Company of Montreal. prima ballerina, choreographer and artis- In 1951 she settled in New York City, by Roman Woronowycz Mr. Kuchma reiterated that a “full- tic director, died on Sunday, May 23, where she worked with leading choreogra- Kyiv Press Bureau fledged free-trade zone” remains a priori- after a prolonged illness. She was 77. phers, among them Valentyna Pere- ty in order to show the world that the Ms. Pryma-Bohachevsky began her yaslavets and Martha Graham. All the KYIV – The presidents of the four four countries are serious in their intent. dance career in Ukraine and continued it while she continued to perform highly suc- states of the former Soviet Union that “I am sure that the implementation of in Europe and North America. During cessful solo recitals in the United States, intend to form a common market, includ- the first phase in the creation of the SES four decades of work as a choreographer Canada, Europe and Central America. ing Ukraine’s President Leonid Kuchma, will become a litmus test to show the and dance instructor, she popularized She married the noted bass-baritone expressed satisfaction on May 24 with parties’ real preparedness and the will to Ukainian folk dance. She directed George Bohachewsky in 1963; the couple the pace at which the new economic ties go further than political declarations Ukrainian folk dance ensembles in the tri- eventually had two children, Ania and Boris. are developing. However, little was said towards a higher quality of economic state, New York-New Jersey-Connecticut In 1963, Ms. Pryma-Bohachevsky estab- about the timetable for the implementa- cooperation,” Mr. Kuchma commented. tion of a free-trade zone, which Ukraine area, and her students over the past 40 lished her own school of ballet and dance. However, during the three-day summit years numbered in the thousands. considers the keystone in the develop- Fifteen years later she founded Syzokryli, almost no one at any level was ready to She was known especially for her cho- ment of the trade partnership. which evolved into a troupe of advanced agree that the free-trade zone would not reography of regional dances from Mr. Kuchma, speaking during a press dancers comprising her top students from include a major list of excepted goods, Ukraine, as well as for her stylized char- conference in Yalta at the end of a special her various dance studios – many of them enumerations that have dislodged earlier acter dances and interpretive numbers three-day summit on the Single college students and young professionals. efforts between Russia and Ukraine to that drew upon Ukrainian dance forms, Economic Space (SES) agreement, said The ensemble has performed extensively develop a free trade zone, most often pre- classical ballet and modern dance. now that the Parliaments of Ukraine, throughout the United States, at concert ven- sented by the Moscow side. Ms. Pryma-Bohachevsky was born on Russia, Belarus and Kazakstan had rati- ues in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Interfax-Ukraine reported on May 24 March 3, 1927, in Peremyshl (today part fied the document, it was time to prepare and Newark, N.J., and in 1992 concluded a that one Russian source said that while of Poland) in Ukraine’s Halychyna the legal framework. critically acclaimed tour of Ukraine, per- there is a possibility that a free trade zone region, and was reared in Lviv. “This will undoubtedly be a compli- forming at the opera houses of major cities. agreement could be signed this year, it She studied dance in Lviv and Vienna, cated process, but it is very important,” Since the mid-1970s Ms. Pryma- would most likely include some excep- graduating with high honors from the explained Mr. Kuchma in opening the Bohachevsky also directed successful tions and limits as to certain products. Vienna Academy of Music and Performing third day of the summit, a meeting of the and highly popular dance camps and In the past Russia has maintained that Arts, and was a member of the corps de four heads of state, held at the historic dance workshops at the Verkhovyna and oil and gas should not be part of a free ballet in the Lviv Opera Theater in 1939- Livadia Palace. Soyuzivka resorts in New York state. trade zone agreement. On May 22, dur- 1944, becoming its youngest soloist at age He said that experts were working on As a dancer Ms. Pryma-Bohachevsky ing a press conference after a ministerial- 14. She was prima ballerina with the some 80 international documents that performed throughout the world, includ- level meeting at the Yalta summit, Innsbruck Theater in Austria in 1947-1949, would be required to make the Single ing in New York, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Ukraine’s First Vice Prime Minister and afterwards performed in Canada, Economic Space a reality. Many of them where she was a guest artist with the (Continued on page 15) would need parliamentary approval. (Continued on page 23) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2004 No. 22 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Summit on Single Economic Space Deputy says West sponsors opposition 27. No press events were scheduled during the visit. Also in Ukraine is Congressman produces little of substance KYIV – Communist Party legislator Doug Bereuter (R-Neb.), president of the Valerii Mishura told the Verkhovna Rada NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He also is by Jan Maksymiuk need to prepare 61 draft accords and on May 21 that Western organizations and chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe RFE/RL Newsline some 50 normative acts that could give funds – primarily in the United States and of the U.S. House of Representatives. His some shape to the hitherto amorphous Germany – finance non-governmental The presidents of Russia, Ukraine, visit has been arranged under the auspices SES idea. These documents are to be organizations (NGO) in Ukraine in an of the Verkhovna Rada. (Embassy of the Belarus and Kazakstan – Vladimir Putin, effort to interfere in the country’s political viewed by the four presidents at their United States) Leonid Kuchma, Alyaksandr subsequent summit, in September in situation and help Our Ukraine leader Lukashenka, and Nursultan Nazarbaev, Astana. “Each should lose something in Viktor Yushchenko win the upcoming Tymoshenko charged with bribery respectively – gathered in the Ukrainian order to find something else at the end of presidential elections, UNIAN reported. sea resort of Yalta on May 23-24 to dis- KYIV – The Procurator General’s Office the road,” President Kuchma reportedly “The president of Ukraine, his administra- cuss further moves in developing the has instituted criminal proceedings against said in summing up the Yalta summit on tion [and] the Internal Affairs Ministry Single Economic Space (SES), the body lawmaker Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the May 24. should inform the international community they created in September 2003.