VOCAL WORKSHOPS

2025

Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 6:30–8:30 PM
Playwrights Downtown, NoHo, NYC

what we learned:

A sold out house gathered and learned traditional Ukrainian songs and dances to a live band. What a fun evening!

Anastasia grew up Ukrainian dancing and extended her repertoire through ethnographic research in community homes in Ukraine. She came to us from her residency at the Kule Folklore Centre at the University of Alberta to teach traditional dances of Ukrainian social gatherings and their accompanying songs called pryspivky. Participants learned to sing common refrains and the dance steps that go with them. Thank you for an energetic and informative experience!

About Anastasia Fyk

Anastasia Fyk is a 4th-generation member of the Ukrainian diaspora, whose family settled on the Prairies of Manitoba, Canada. She is dedicated to reviving traditional dance by reclaiming its essence as social and ritual practice within cultural spaces. As a custodian of Ukrainian folk knowledge encompassing dance, song, crafts, agricultural practices, and culinary traditions, she focuses on fostering community bonds and cross-cultural connections, playing a crucial role in revitalizing endangered village and rural traditions.

Her latest project took shape this summer during a trip to Ukraine, where she conducted field work to gather these traditions, particularity dances, to make connections between those she experienced in childhood and what is practiced today in Ukraine.

During her ongoing residency at the Bohdan Medwidsky Archives at the Kule Centre for Folklore at the University of Alberta, her research focused on dances and dance songs documented on the North American continent during the 20th century as a means of better understanding living memory and contextualizing living tradition in a contemporary context.

She is the founder of Kolektyvs Chornozem and Steppe in Manitoba, as well as a member of Kosa Kolektiv in Ontario.