Yara Arts Group in "Midwinter Night: Sacred and Profane Rituals" December 27, 2012

WHERE AND WHEN:
December 27-30, 2012
La MaMa E.T.C. (Ellen Stewart Theater), 66 East 4th Street
Presented by La MaMa E.T.C.
Thur-Sat at 7:30 PM, plus matinee Sun at 2:30PM
Tickets $25; $20 students/seniors, $10 children
For tickets got to the La MaMa box office at 74A East Fourth Street, visit www.lamama.org or call (212) 475-7710.
Runs 1:15.

In "Midwinter Night: Sacred and Profane Rituals," Yara Arts Group will perform a World Music Theater piece that includes the Koliadnyky, an ensemble of winter song singers from Kryvorivnia (Ukraine); the explosive Lemon Bucket Orkestra, a Ukrainian-klezmer-gypsy-rag-tag-punk super band from Canada; and an 18th century Baroque Nativity folk opera staged by Yara artists. La MaMa E.T.C. will present the piece December 27-30 in its Ellen Stewart Theater, 66 East Fourth Street (in Manhattan's East Village).

The evening, created and directed by Yara's Artistic Director Virlana Tkacz, celebrates Koliada, a winter ritual that now coincides with Christmas but is much older in origin and symbolism. Its oldest songs are preserved in villages high in the Carpathian Mountains, where the Koliada is considered to be the most important event of the year. Some people believe that Spring and the harvest will not come to the village unless the songs are sung in every household. The songs are incantations that assume the magical power of words: "what is said, will be so." These songs are featured in the first part of Yara's show. For the second part of the event, Virlana Tkacz, Artistic Director of the troupe, has adapted and translated a Baroque folk Christmas opera from Ukraine. A highlight is the original 18th century music, as arranged by Julian Kytasty. The third part of the evening offers raucous Goat Songs, celebrating the passing of the old year and its rebirth as the new. A wooden puppet of a goat dances, dies and is brought back to life because people believed "where the goat will dance that's where wheat will grow."