Melanie Moravski Dechnicz first met Mykola Kanevets when he was visiting Australia from Canada. Kanevets was in Australia facilitating a workshop in Ukrainian dance. That meeting marked a turning point in Dechnicz’s life. She went on to study with a number of top Ukrainian choreographers and innovative dance teachers and spent time training at Virsky, Ukraine’s prestigious dance company in Kyiv.

Today, Dechnicz heads Australia’s premier Ukrainian dance company, Lehenda. Collaborating with her old mentor from Canada, she helped to bring Kanevets and his Canadian-Ukrainian dance company, Cheremosh, to Australia.

Both dance companies, Cheremosh and Lehenda, together (“together” in Ukrainian is “razom”) staged a dazzling feast of Ukrainian dance in Sydney on the 12th of July at NIDA’s Parade Theatre.

The grace, lyricism and swift poise of the women spectacularly offset the raw, gut-wrenching brazenness of the men.

Time-honoured favourites like “Pryvit”, echoing the age-old tradition of Ukrainian folk welcoming guests to their home, set the scene for twenty-first century breath-taking interpretations of “Hopak”, the Cossack-inspired tour-de-force. 

Kanevets’s and Dechnicz’s training in classical ballet – Kanevets, a distinguished graduate of Ukraine’s National University of Culture and Performing Arts in Kyiv, who has gone on to collect a life-time of accolades in choreography and teaching around the world, and Dechnicz, who teaches the “Ballet Conservatoire” at Melbourne Conservatoire of Ballet – give both Cheremosh and Lehenda the confident vivacity and mesmerizing stage presence that thrill audiences and infuse dance at its best.

Both dance companies have been touring Australia. Check “Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Company” and “Lehenda Dance Company” on Facebook for details.