“It’s a very catchy way of dancing.
“I have two sisters and a brother.
“For three people, they had like 90 suitcases for bulletproof vests and helmets, because this is something that cannot be shipped,” said Babiychuk.
This year’s choreography also highlights the subversive side of Ukrainian dancing.
A few weeks later, the Voloshky Dance Ensemble got ready to perform at an International Spring Festival, held at a local high school.
When it was their turn, the Ensemble started with some lighter pieces, welcoming the audience and honoring springtime.
In it, a dancer dressed in a Russian fur hat tries to come between a Ukrainian couple.
And finally today, since the Russian invasion, Ukrainian ex-patriots and Ukrainian Americans have mobilized to fundraise, to lobby for aid and to educate Americans now focused on their homeland.
BENSHOFF: The greater Philadelphia area is home to the second largest Ukrainian diaspora community in the country.
work so hard to protect their traditions because many had family members who were killed for defending those traditions in Ukraine.
KHRISTINA MARIA BABIYCHUK: She got, like, I don’t know how many suitcase.
BENSHOFF: The Ukrainian community here also coexists with a Russian one, where opinions on the war vary.
DARIYA MEDYNSKA: It’s good to have this kind of fresh breath of air where we’re still letting people know it’s out there, but in a different way.
Dancer Gregory Fat says many of the pieces involve characters acting out a story that seems to be about one thing but is really about oppression by neighbors like Russia.
GREGORY FAT: You know, in the USSR, still today in Russia, you know, the propaganda, there’s a lot of crackdown of what they can and can’t say.