Ukraine

Today is the day we get a truly once in a lifetime experience... dancing at the Lviv Opera house. You’ve already seen photos of the exterior which is stunning, but inside it is possibly even more beautiful. But I digress.

We got up early (again trying to fabricate free time since in reality there hasn’t been any). We decided to skip the mediocre hotel breakfast and went to Lviv Croissants for breakfast - two Americanos and croissants with cheese/ham and egg/salami. It hit the spot and was very fast. Next we decided to see the more local market. They sell everything from food to sneakers and nylons with some souvenirs mixed in. Definitely a market more geared toward locals but it was cool to see. We even had time to pop over to the main market and do a bit of gift shopping. We were quite successful and were pleased with ourselves since we won’t have much time later.

Back at the hotel, Kristen graciously braided my hair before the time to walk to the theatre for our tech rehearsal. The walk was just two blocks and we were already able to take all of our costumes to the changerooms.

We had a few minutes to explore the stunning lobby of the theatre. The staircase reminded us of the ballroom in Beauty and the Beast.

Tech rehearsal on stage was very efficient. It felt strange to set the positions so many hours before the show though. This stage is the first we’ve ever danced on that is on a slant, literally having a downstage and upstage. Very interesting to experience but I was extremely nervous for my solo. Tyler practiced his kozas and then were pretty perfect. Emma and I practiced our circle turns - we do them opposite each other so I needed to make sure that going upstage I would clear her before moving to the side. Spinning uphill is not easy... this made me extra nervous for the show!

A must do for us in Lviv was to see the Lvivske brewery. We had just over an hour before the group lunch so power walked there through one of the markets. It’s not a brewery tour, more like a museum about the brewery and the history of beer making in Ukraine. The building was beautiful as well... I would have loved to spend a whole afternoon there! Maybe the next time we go to Lviv.

We decided to Uber to Rynok Square where lunch would be. This was a really good decision as it was swelteringly hot outside and we needed to save our legs for dancing.

The included lunch today was at the ‘Most Expensive Galician Restaurant.’ Their claim to fame is that they list their prices as thousands of dollars and then quote a ‘discount’ down to a normal price. Their restaurant bathroom was literally a toilet throne... I think we both didn’t find it very appealing though. We started with warm potato salad that had a poached egg on top. It was delicious and quite filling... it felt like a main course. Then came a chicken noodle soup with boiled quails eggs in it. We thought that was a full lunch and started getting ready to go but then a third course of chicken with pasta came out. We asked for it to go as we were full and wanted the time to spend at the market.

Back in the market, everything was set up and the ladies were embroidering at their stalls. Unfortunately I was not in the biggest shopping mood during the time we had. I wanted another blouse for myself but just wasn’t decisive or sure what I wanted. I did get a simple but quite pretty blouse in the end. We also picked out an item that will be our contribution to the silent auction for Zabava in the fall.

Before we knew it, we were again at the hotel prepping for a show for the third day in a row. Tyler ate some of our extra lunch and I did my makeup quite quickly. I’ve got those fake eyelashes pretty much down to a science!

At 5:15 pm we walked as a group back to the theatre for the finale rehearsal. They basically just corralled us into columns on the stage and we learned we’d have to sing the Ukrainian anthem on stage at the end. Uh oh! We took spots further back as we are not that hardcore and can basically just mouth some of the words. The people who knew it fully were in the front.

Back to the cramped change rooms to get dressed and final preparations for the show. Hopak was the fourth number in the first half and hutsul was in the second half. Another group’s hopak was at the end of the first half so it seemed the adjudicator didn’t like our hopak quite as much (he seemed a bit biased to us overall). However, our hopak felt very energetic and powerful and in our opinion (and I think in reality), we got a bigger cheer. The slanted stage was very difficult but nothing bad really happened, just felt a bit off kilter on our feet I think.

The Junior Ensemble Lemko dance and Ensemble hutsul was on after intermission. I was finished dancing but of course Tyler still had to do hutsul. He was just soaked in sweat and I think found it hard to keep dry. His face kept getting covered with sweat. I brought my towel to the backstage area to try to help with that.

At the end of the show, the curtain was closed and Nazar Slavko sang one pop song while we convened on stage for the finale. My feet were very sore so I kept shifting my weight but I was in the third row so I hope it wasn’t noticeable. After the anthem, we grabbed a quick group photo and a few individual shots and just really tried to soak in the experience of dancing in this amazing theatre. Although it’s been a busy few days, it was a really memorable way to end our dance tour.

We quickly changed and schlepped our costumes back to the hotel. Marta was in the lobby to say goodbye. Marta had luckily been able to get a ticket to the concert. I think the tickets were mostly assigned to the festival organizers and tour groups so our tour guide wasn’t really able to get any extra but I think she came to the theatre and they did manage to get her two tickets - one for her and one for her friend Yolanda. By this point it was nearly 11 pm and we still had to go pack our costumes as a group. We spent a few minutes chatting and she seemed very happy to have seen the show. She wanted to take us to her house in the morning but we explained we were leaving for the airport pretty much first thing and so we said goodbye and hopefully next time.

We convened ASAP with the other dancers on the fifth floor elevator lobby to pack the last few costumes. Unfortunately some of the lights were out on that floor and we really should have switched to another floor that had better lighting. We sprayed the costumes with a water/vodka solution and got them packed away. I think everyone was rushing a bit more than they should have, but hopefully everything will be ok with the costumes when they’re home. We’ll have a couple suitcases of wet costumes that will need to be hung up immediately at home.

We got back to our room and started tidying a bit of our own stuff. On the group chat, people were looking for a room to gather in and our room was the perfect choice given its huge suite like size. From about 11:30-3 am people were coming and going to visit and say goodbye. Some people were leaving just after midnight, others at 4 am and us at 9 am. We were starving and needed to eat at midnight even though it was so late. Jesse and I walked a block to a street shawarma vendor and bought a bunch of wraps to go. They really hit the spot!

By around 2 am I was napping on the floor while others were still chatting and eventually the others left. Tyler and I decided to pack for about 15 minutes before sleeping which took us to a bedtime of 3 am. About a four hour nap and then time to pack and start the near 24 hr journey home!

BrookeRead more