UKRAINE: FOLK DANCING - Folk dancing goes 'underground' as pensioniers dance in Kiev subway

Record ID: 863504

  • Title: UKRAINE: FOLK DANCING - Folk dancing goes 'underground' as pensioniers dance in Kiev subway
  • Date: 29th March 2013
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (RECENT) (REUTERS) APARTMENT BUILDING MYKOLA MILEVSKY AND HIS WIFE NATALYA STOLYARCHUK IN APARTMENT
  • Embargoed: 13th April 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • City:
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAD2EJTRXPKKK9K84PTLFE2POWX
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Fore more than 20 years, pensioners have been gathering in a Kiev subway passage every weekend to dance and socialise - and sometimes even find romance.
    Some 200 seniors, who have no money to rent a proper room to dance indoors, were granted permission by the Kiev mayor's office for them to gather in the passageway, and it is where they spend an affordable night in traditional Ukrainian folk costumes playing instruments and singing.
    Many of the dancer's from Ukraine's older population, who came of age in the Soviet Union, say they cannot adjust to a new lifestyle or reconcile with new realities and values. Many complain they don't understand communication on social networks, but they still clearly remember the way all holidays were celebrated during their childhood and youth, when tables laden with food were brought out, and neighbours from the same street or house would sit down together and then dance to the tune of an accordion through the night.
    So they find comfort in their traditions, recollections of their youth for a few hours, underground.
    For Mykola Milevsky and his wife Natalya Stolyarchuk, who showed Reuters how they prepared for their night out, the dances brought them together.
    "I came once to dance, I was so sad, and bored. The dances were coming to an end when Mykola Vyacheslavovich came asked me for a dance. And I liked him, and he liked me. Love at first sight, isn't it? We haven't left each other since then, and we don't think of it!" Stolyarchuk said.
    "We have everything in common!" Milevsky added.
    The subway passage dancing has now become known to many in Kiev, including to tourists.
    American English teacher Sunaya said seeing the dancers was a cultural treat.
    "We're here teaching English, and we're from America, and we've never really seen this, we've never seen like a traditional dance like this before, so it's really exciting," she said.
    Milevsky and Stolyarchuk, who have been together for five years now, are just one of about 20 couples that have emerged during the dances.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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