The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations are hosting the inaugural Ukrainian Dance Festival “Hopak in the Park” at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in April 2011.
The name hopak is derived from the verb hopaty which means “to jump,” as well as the corresponding exclamation hop! which can be uttered during a jump as an expression of surprise or amazement.
The concept is based on a very successful festival that takes place in Canada for a number of years. Our Australian festival will be a bi-annual event show casing Ukrainian Dance, including local, state, interstate and international ensembles to the wider Australian community as well as our Australian Ukrainian community.
It is envisaged that in excess of 300 performers alone, from all around Australia, will be performing on stage at the inaugural event to an audience of thousands. Presently all dance ensembles nationally have agreed to partake. We are presently finalising negotiations with a dance ensemble from USA as well as investigating an number of options with dance ensembles from Ukraine to partake in our Australian inaugural “Hopak in the Park”.
Please come and support our National Ukrainian Dance Festival “Hopak in the Park” and bring your Australian friends along to show them our rich and spectacular cossack dancing!
Keep on dancing,
Taras Galas
Cultural Director
