{"id":297,"date":"2026-02-05T14:18:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/?p=297"},"modified":"2026-03-07T15:35:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T20:35:34","slug":"conversations-with-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/blog\/conversations-with-legends\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations with legends"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MiroslavVantuh-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MiroslavVantuh-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MiroslavVantuh-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MiroslavVantuh-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MiroslavVantuh-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MiroslavVantuh-389x219.jpg 389w, https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MiroslavVantuh.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong>14 AUGUST 2024<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">Over the past months, our team has been deep in production on our documentary project, \u201c<em><strong>Virsky: The Dance of Freedom,<\/strong><\/em>\u201d produced under the expert guidance of <strong>Felix Golubev<\/strong>. What started as a creative idea quickly became something bigger: a journey into the living history of the Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble\u2014and the people who carried its spirit through the Soviet era and into the realities Ukraine faces today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"translation-block\">Our director <strong>Mykyta Novokhatskyy (Nick Newcastle)<\/strong> had the honor of interviewing an extraordinary group of artists whose lives reflect the Virsky story across decades:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><strong>Miroslav Vantuh<\/strong> \u2014 a long-standing artistic director whose leadership has shaped Ukrainian cultural life and inspired generations of dancers and choreographers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><strong>Sergei Makarov<\/strong> \u2014 a choreographic force and one of the last artists directly taught by Pavlo Virsky. His approach to instruction is famously rigorous\u2014precise, demanding, and deeply respected worldwide.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><strong>Victor Gachenko<\/strong> \u2014 an essential voice in understanding how the ensemble\u2019s tradition was sustained and refined.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><strong>Yevgen Tregubov<\/strong> \u2014 a soloist who toured internationally under Vantuh\u2019s direction and now continues the legacy from Calgary, passing the tradition to the next generation, including his sons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"translation-block\"><strong>Victor Osadchyy, Volodymyr Oliyarnik, Olga Oleksienko<\/strong> \u2014 powerful representatives of the younger successors carrying Virsky forward today.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re excited to share more as the documentary continues to take shape\u2014because this isn\u2019t only a story about performance. It\u2019s a story about freedom, continuity, and the people who keep culture alive. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>#ECGProductionsCanada #VirskyTheDanceOfFreedom #UkrainianDance #BehindTheScenes #StayTuned #Virsky #Ukraine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69e9d9933022d&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69e9d9933022d\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SergeyMakarov-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" 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What started ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-behind-the-scenes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virskydance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}