ORONO — Imagine the energy of “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Zorba the Greek” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” all in one show, and all with a Ukrainian accent.
Such was the spectacle of hot-blooded vigor presented by the Veryovka Ukrainian National Dance Company at the Maine Center for the Arts on Tuesday night. Not all sound and fury, the two-hour performance blended majestic singing and acrobatic dancing with subtly delicate renderings of folk ballads and hymnlike choral numbers.
For more than 50 years, the company has made much of the world aware of its homeland’s rich music and dance traditions. Tuesday’s well-received show was part of the troupe’s first American tour. One man in attendance said the raucous leaps and high kicks of the first half made his thighs ache.
A major reshuffling of the evening’s program made it difficult to follow which number was which, but a few leapt out as particularly memorable.
“Scenic compositions,” meshing props with performance, are a Veryovka mainstay. At moments, the women’s singing in the lavish “The Fern Is Blooming” piece resembled the sounds of chanting from an Asian temple. The piece climaxed when a tree of almost sculptural beauty was brought onstage. The women proceeded to bedeck it with shiny ribbons and literally danced rings around it.
A trio of Cossack numbers featured the kind of gravity-defying vaults and spins that drew the crowd’s most appreciative gasps, especially when coupled with swordplay.
Many of the choral pieces produced vocal effects not usually associated with the human throat. Along with simply glorious harmonies, the night’s catalog of sounds embraced pleasing buzzes, meows, and metallic growls.
It would have been nice if the “exotic” instruments mentioned in publicity materials had been described in the program. Pavel Feniuk’s stunning solo performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” on the accordionlike bayan made one curious about the instrument, and about the “cembellum” listed to accompany another song.
The show’s rousing finale, replete with backflips and no-handed cartwheel-type twists, brought the crowd to its feet for an ovation.
Ukrainian music is a “most luxuriant and fragrant branch on the tree of world folk art,” a Soviet statesman once said. Witnesses to Veryovka’s Maine debut appear to agree.
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