The showman and the Ukrainian cause : folk dance, film, and the life of Vasile Avramenko / Orest T. Martynowych.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martynowych, Orest T., author.

Series:

Studies in immigration and culture ; 11.

Studies in immigration and culture ; 11

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Avramenko, Vasylʹ.

Dancers--Ukraine--Biography.

Dancers.

Dancers--Canada--Biography.

Folk dancing, Ukrainian.

Canada.

Ukraine.

Motion picture producers and directors--Canada--Biography.

Motion picture producers and directors.

Folk dancing, Ukrainian--Canada.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 219 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Winnipeg, Manitoba : University of Manitoba Press, [2014]

Summary:

The quixotic and volatile Vasile Avramenko (1895-1981) used folk dance and film in a life-long crusade to promote Ukraine's struggle for independence to North American audiences. Energetic and charismatic, but also manipulative, impractical and vain, he was a controversial figure for decades. Horn in a village near Kyiv, Avramenko established himself as a performer and dance teacher among Ukrainian émigrés in central Europe. He immigrated to Canada in 1925 and organized a network at Ukrainian folk dance schools by appealing to the new immigrants' patriotism and to their yearning for cultural survival. Determined in conquer Broadway, he moved to New York City in 1929, oversaw his expanding web of dance schools, and began to stage elaborate (money-losing) spectacies of dance and music. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Man and His Mission 5

Chapter 2 Dance Master 23

Chapter 3 Motion Picture Producer 71

Chapter 4 Fugitive 122.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-203) and index.

Other Format:

Martynowych, Orest T, author. Showman and the Ukrainian cause.

ISBN:

9780887557682

0887557686

OCLC:

878976238