Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

667 Pages·2010·24.145 MB·English

by  Irene Rima Makaryk, Virlana Tkacz

MODERNISM IN KYIV:
JUBILANT EXPERIMENTATION
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Modernism in Kyiv
KIEV/K(cid:578)(cid:562)(cid:572)/K(cid:578)E(cid:572)/KIJÓW/(cid:677)(cid:677)(cid:690)(cid:681) (cid:695)
Jubilant Experimentation
Edited by Irena R. Makaryk
and Virlana Tkacz
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
©University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2010
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4426-4098-6 (cloth)
Printed on acid-free paper with vegetable-based inks
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Modernism in Kyiv: Kiev/Kyïv/Kiev/KijÓw/Kiev: jubilant experimentation/edited by
Irena R. Makaryk and Virlana Tkacz.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4098-6
1. Modernism (Art) – Ukraine – Kiev. 2. Arts, Ukrainian – Ukraine – Kiev – 20th century.
3. Kurbas, Les’, 1887–1937 – Criticism and interpretation. 4. Theater – Ukraine – Kiev –
History – 20th century. 5. Kiev (Ukraine) – Intellectual life – 20th century. 6. Kiev
(Ukraine) – History – 20th century. I. Makaryk, Irena R. (Irena Rima), 1951– II. Tkacz,
Virlana, 1952–
NX456.5.M64M64 2010 700.9477’70904 C2009-905088-9
The University of Toronto Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the
Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies for the preparation of the index.
The authors and the University of Toronto Press are grateful for the support of
the Mykhailo and Oksana Sosnowsky Memorial Fund and the Ukrainian Canadian
Foundation of Taras Shevchenko.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing
program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing
activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Permissions xi
List of Illustrations xiii
A Note on Transliteration xxiii
Introduction: Reconnecting Modernisms 3
irena r. makaryk
PART ONE KYIV: ‘SPECIAL AND BEWILDERING’ 13
Les Kurbas Foreword to Victor Auburtin, Art Is Dying (excerpt) 15
1 Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation 16
irena r. makaryk
Serhy Yefremov ‘How beautiful Kyiv is’ (diary excerpt) 25
2 ‘A Theatrical Mecca’: The Stages of Kyiv in 1907 26
mayhill c. fowler
Pavlo Tychyna ‘Dawn’ 51
3 ‘Special and Bewildering’: A Portrait of Late-Imperial
and Early Soviet Kyiv 52
michael f. hamm
Legend Sweet Michael and the Golden Gates 97
4 Three Novels, Three Cities 98
taras koznarsky
vi CCoonntteennttss
Tsar Nicholas II and Lev Trotsky On Film 138
5 Film in Kyiv, 1910–1916 139
oleh sydor-hybelynda
PART 2 KYIV THE EPICENTRE 167
Les Kurbas On Rhythm (diary excerpt) 169
6 In the Epicentre of Abstraction: Kyiv during the Time of Kurbas 170
dmytro horbachov
Volodymyr Koriak ‘To the Isles Electric!’ (excerpt) 196
7 The Yiddish Kultur-Lige 197
gennady estraikh
Pavlo Tychyna ‘You Tell Me’ 218
8 Politics and the Ukrainian Avant-garde 219
myroslav shkandrij
Les Kurbas On Art (diary excerpt) 242
9 Kyiv’s Multicultural Theatrical Life, 1917–1926 243
hanna veselovska
PART 3 ‘FIRE AND MOTION’ 275
Pavlo Tychyna ‘In the Orchestra of the Cosmos’ (excerpt) 277
10 Towards a New Vision of Theatre: Les Kurbas’s Work at the Young Theatre
in Kyiv 278
virlana tkacz
Serge Lifar On Movement (excerpt) 310
11 The Choreographic Avant-garde in Kyiv, 1916–1921: Bronislava Nijinska
and Her École de Mouvement 311
maria ratanova
Pavlo Tychyna ‘The Highest Power’ 321
12 Kyiv, the 1920s, and Modernism in Music 322
dagmara turchyn-duvirak
Contents vii
Pavlo Tychyna ‘Lull’ (excerpt) 342
13 Music in the Theatre of Les Kurbas 343
yana leonenko
PART 4 THE INVISIBLE MADE VISIBLE 359
Bronislava Nijinska On the Theatre (notebook excerpt) 361
14 Les Kurbas’s Early Work at the Berezil: From Bodies in Motion
to Performing the Invisible 362
virlana tkacz
Vladimir Lenin ‘Why worship the new?’ 386
15 Abstraction and Ukrainian Futurist Literature 387
oleh s. ilnytzkyj
Klyment Redko In sight of the sun (autobiography excerpt) 407
16 The Graphic Arts: From Page Design to Theatre 408
myroslava m. mudrak
Pavlo Tychyna ‘Rhythm’ 442
17 Dissecting Time/Space: The Scottish Play and the New Technology
of Film 443
irena r. makaryk
Natalka Bilotserkivets ‘We’ll not die in Paris’ (excerpt) 478
18 On the World Stage: The Berezil in Paris and New York 479
irena r. makaryk
PART 5 ELEGIES: REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE PAST 515
Serhiy Zhadan ‘The End of Ukrainian Syllabotonic Verse’ 517
19 Vsevolod Meyerhold and Les Kurbas 519
béatrice picon-vallin with veronika gopko-pereverzeva
Pericles ‘Funeral Oration over the Athenian Dead’ (excerpt) 537
20 Les Kurbas and the Spiritual Foundations of the Ukrainian
Avant-garde 538
nelli kornienko
Les Kurbas ‘Premonition’ (excerpt) 567
viii CCoonntteennttss
Appendices
1 Production List 569
2 Kyiv, Historical Timeline 583
Contributors 589
Index 593
Acknowledgments
This book has had a long, but loving, gestation period during which it profited
both from conversations with many people and from work in many archives.
Numerous exchanges among the contributors, as well as with the editors of this
volume, both at conferences and by way of the Internet, were fruitful, enriching,
and catalytic, igniting ideas and discovering new connections about as yet little
charted territory.
A window into this world was first opened for us by two actors of the Berezil
Theatre, Yosyp Hirniak and Roman Cherkashyn, who generously shared their
stories, insights, and archives. We would like to thank Volodymyr Hrycyn and
Bohdan Boychuk in New York as well as Les Taniuk and Nelli Kornienko in Kyiv
for first introducing us to the wealth of material available.
We would like to thank Roman Weretelnyk for his constant support and en-
thusiasm for this project and, especially, the Mykhailo and Oksana Sosnowsky
Memorial Fund of which he is the executor, and which has generously funded the
publication of this book.
We are also grateful to The Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko
(UCFTS), which contributed additional funds, enabling the inclusion of supple-
mentary images. The Social Sciences and Humanities Federation of Canada pro-
vided seed money, augmented in subsequent years by the University of Ottawa’s
Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, which enabled the hiring of (then)
graduate student Elena Ilina, who acted as editorial assistant throughout most of
this project. Tobi Kozakewich assisted at an early stage, while Lukash Monczak
provided efficient scanning skills at various stages. A grant from the Canadian
Foundation for Ukrainian Studies enabled the editors to hire an indexer. We would
like to thank Barbara Czarnecki and Ruth Pincoe for completing work begun by
Elena Ilina.
We would like to thank the artists of Yara Arts Group, especially Watoku Ueno,
for providing innumerable insights into the art of making theatre, Wanda Phipps
and Dzvinia Orlowsky for their elegant translations of the poetry.
The editors wish to thank Mr Gibbs Raetz, Pacific Palisades, for unfettered ac-
cess to the Bronislava Nijinska Archives (Pacific Palisades, now in the Library of
Congress); Edward Kasinec, Head, the New York Public Library, Slavic Baltic, East
European and Eurasian Collections; the San Francisco Performing Arts Library