For the past two years, CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative has been greatly enriched by the talent, expertise and energy of Ukrainian dance master Tamara Chernyakhovska. Chernyakhovska has been a popular instructor for CTMD's ongoing Vechornytsi Carpathian dance series, which will continue on Thursday, February 26th from 6PM - 9PM at the Brooklyn Ukrainian Restaurant, 1223 Ave. U (between East 12th St. and Homecrest in Brooklyn near the Q train stop for Ave. U). Live music will be provided by CTMD Touring Artists Andriy Milavsky and Cheres.

Chernyakhovska was born in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk, and had a long career performing as a principal dancer with the G. G. Veriovka Ukrainian National Dance Company of Kyiv, and the State Folk Ensemble of Ukraine. As they toured throughout Ukraine, members of the companies would seek out elderly dancers from the different regions and learn the local choreographies.

Tamara moved to the US in 1992 with her family and soon founded her own dance group here called the Holubka Ensemble.

CTMD's Eileen Condon recently caught up with Tamara and files the following report (click on the below link):

Friday, February 13: CTMD Ukrainian Wave presents The Third Eye: Festival of Retro-Futurism featuring Julian Kytasty, Michael Andrec and special guests. At the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street, Manhattan (between 2nd and 3rd Ave). Admission $15. (7:00PM)

Friday, February 13: Pachamama Peruvian Arts presents La Oruga y La Flor (The Caterpillar and the Flower) featuring Pachamama students and faculty. At P.S. 212 34-25 82nd St., Jackson Heights, Queens. Admission free (7:30-10PM)

Thursday, February 19: Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance with dance leader Deborah Strauss and live klezmer band. At the JCC in Manhattan, 76th and Amsterdam. Admission $10, $8 for JCC, CTMD and Workmen's Circle members. (7:00PM-10:00PM)

Sunday, February 22: CTMD Touring Artists Kotchegna Dance Company present the third annual Kekene III: La Chasse (The Hunt). Featuring Kotchegna, led by Vado Diamonde, and star performers from the Ivory Coast. At the Miller Theater @ Columbia University (116th St. and Broadway). TIckets $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For more information go to the Kotchegna website. (6:00PM)

Thursday, February 26: CTMD Ukrainian Wave presents a Vechornytsi (Carpathian dance party). At the Brooklyn Ukrainian Restaurant, 1223 Ave U between E 12th & Homecrest Ave (Q train to Ave U stop). Dance will be taught by Tamara Chernyakhovska with live Ukrainian mountain music by Andriy Milavsky and Cheres. All ages welcome. Admission: $10 for Adults, $5 for Children, $15 for buffet dinner and admission. For reservations call 212- 571-1555, ext 35 (Dance Instruction from 6:00PM - 7:00PM, Party from 7:00PM-9:00PM)

Sunday, March 15th: Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance in Brooklyn with dance leader Deborah Strauss and live klezmer band. At the Bensonhurst JCH, 7802 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn. (4:00PM - 7:00PM)

Friday, March 20: CTMD Touring Artist Sidiki Conde and Tokounou at Symphony Space (95th St. and Broadway in Manhattan). Tickets $28, CTMD members and WMI Friends $24, Students $18. Despite having lost the use of his legs at age 14, the Guinea-born Conde built a career as a dancer, musician and composer in some of West Africa's leading tradition-based ensembles. He was honored with an NEA National Heritage Award in 2007. For more information, go to the World Music Institute website. (8:00PM)

Thursday, April 23: Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance with dance leader Zev Feldman and live klezmer band. At the JCC in Manhattan, 76th and Amsterdam. Admission $10, $8 for JCC, CTMD and Workmen's Circle members. (7:00PM-10:00PM)

CTMD's An-Sky Institute for Jewish Culture continues the popular Tantshoyz Yiddish dance series with upcoming events in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Come learn the traditional dances of the Jews of Eastern Europe: freylekh, sher, bulgar, hora, honga, and more. Or maybe you have one to share with us!

Each Tantshoyz features a leading dance teacher and live klezmer ensemble. Beginners are absolutely welcome!

The Tantshoyz series features renowned dance leaders such as Zev Feldman, Michael Alpert and Deborah Strauss. Live music is provided by a revolving all- star ensemble featuring leading klezmorim such as Jake Shulman-Ment (violin), Jeff Warschauer (guitar/cobza), Joey Weisenberg (percussion/poyk), Dimitri Slepovitch (clarinet), Michael Winograd (clarinet), Christina Crowder (accordion), Adrianne Greenbaum (flute/viola), Alex Fiterstein (clarinet) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer).

Tantshoyz Schedule:
*Thursday, February 19, 7:00PM - 10:00PM at the JCC in Manhattan, 76th and Amsterdam. Dance leader: Deborah Strauss. Admission $10, $8 for CTMD, JCC and Workmen's Circle members.

*Sunday, March 15, 4:00PM - 7:00PM at the Bensonhurst JCH (7802 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, near the Bay Parkway stop for the D train). For directions click here. Dance leader: Deborah Strauss. Presented in cooperation with Brooklyn Arts Council and its Folk Arts traditional dance project, Folk Feet.

*Thursday, April 23, 7:00PM - 10:00PM at the JCC in Manhattan, 76th and Amsterdam. Dance leader: Zev Feldman. Admission $10, $8 for CTMD, JCC and Workmen's Circle members.

Additionally a new international group, the Yiddish Dance Action Network has formed to help research and promote Yiddish Dance around the world. For more information contact Pete Rushefsky at 917-326- 9659.

Also CTMD is seeking old family videos with footage of Yiddish Dance as well as those who remember dance from their families celebrations, summer camps, etc.

Pachamama Peruvian Arts, which was founded by CTMD in 2003, invites you to attend their newest production on Friday, February 13. La Oruga y La Flor (The Caterpillar and the Flower) is a musical based on a traditional Peruvian folk narrative.

Set in the mythological past, slaves run for their lives and are rescued by a dying wizard. The wizard saves them from death but mistakenly turns them to stone in the shape of a flower and a caterpillar. A century later, musicians aware of what happened to the couple revive them and they merge into a new being, a butterfly.

This musical showcases Pachamama Peruvian Arts students performing on cajón (box drum), zampoña (pan pipes), quena (end-blown flute), charango (small guitar) and dancing the festejo and Pacasito. Pachamama students have been practicing hard for the production with their master instructors Luz Pereira, Rosa Carhuallanqui, Hector Morales and Patricio Paucar.

Show begins at 7:30 pm, at PS 212 in Queens, 34-25 82nd Street, Jackson Heights, New York. To get there, take Subway #7 to 82nd Street (walk 3 blocks north). Bus: Q32 to 81st Street. For more information call 212- 683-2381 or email luzpny[at]aol.com. Suggested donation is $5.

Pachamama Peruvian Arts, offers free weekly classes of traditional Peruvian music and dance to children ages 7-17 at PS 212, Queens. Pachamama's website can be found by clicking here.

On Friday, February 13 at 7:00 pm, CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative, in collaboration with The Ukrainian Museum and New York Bandura Ensemble/Bandura Downtown, presents The Third Eye: Festival of Retro- Futurism, an evening of musical responses to the Museum's exhibition "Futurism and After: David Burliuk, 1882-1967," which has been extended through April 26, 2009.

New York Bandura Ensemble's Mike Andrec and Julian Kytasty join vocalist Natalka Honcharenko, violist Rob Lawrence, and special guests Gisburg and Michael Alpert in a program of new works and re-imaginings of tradition, created especially for this occasion in mixed media (musical, vocal, visual, and spoken word) and inspired by the eclectic, eccentric, and provocative work of a unique artist.

David Burliuk is internationally renowned as the father of Futurism in his native Ukraine and in Russia and as a major contributor to Modernism in the early 20th century. Born in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Burliuk studied in Odesa and Kazan, at the Munich Royal Academy of Arts, and in Paris at the École des Beaux- Arts. His painting demonstrates Fauvist, Cubist, and Futurist influences, combined with his love of nature, a fascination for Scythian cultural forms and designs, and an interest in Ukrainian folklore, including the legend of Mamai, a Cossack who, for Burliuk, embodied bravery, self-sufficiency, and rugged individualism. The exhibition is the first major U.S. show of Burliuk's art in nearly half a century.

At the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street, Manhattan (between 2nd and 3rd Aves).

Tickets are $15 with discounts available for Museum/CTMD members and seniors. To reserve tickets contact the Museum at 212-228-0110. Tickets include gallery admission and a reception to follow the concert. For more information see CTMD's website www.ctmd.org or call Eileen Condon at 212-571-1555 ext. 35.

Image: Cossack Mamai, by David Burliuk (1908). Oil on burlap. Copyright Mary Burliuk Holt. Courtesy of the Ukrainian Museum.

Thousands attending last August's Lincoln Center Out of Doors Heritage Sunday program were no doubt amazed by CTMD Touring Artist Kotchegna Dance Company's performance. Led by master dancer and percussionist Vado Diamonde, Kotchegna employs elaborate costumes, thrilling choreographies with dancers on high stilts, and an explosive corps of percussionists, to bring to life the ancient stories and legends of Africa's Ivory Coast.

On Sunday, February 22 at 6:00PM, the company is presenting their third annual gathering. Entitled Kekene III: La Chasse (the Hunt), the production will feature the ensemble as well as a host of star performers from the Ivory Coast.

At the Miller Theater @ Columbia University (116th St. and Broadway). Tickets $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For more information go to the Kotchegna website.

On Friday, Feburary 20th at 8:30PM, virtuoso Bulgarian accordionist Ivan Milev performs with his spellbinding ensemble for the monthly Balkan Cafe series featuring Entcho Todorov - violin, Seido Salifoski - percussion and Maria Koleva - vocals. At Hungarian House, 213 E 82 St. in Manhattan. For more information go to the Balkan Cafe website.

On Friday, February 27, Barbes presents singer/oud player Mavrothi Kontanis leading one of the best Greek ensembles around. Their repertoire draws from early 20th century Istanbul, Izmir, Athens and Salonika: a blend of original compositions and rare old urban songs of the Aegean. The ensemble also features Lefteris Bournias - clarinet; Megan Gould - violin; Anastassia Zachariadou - kanun; Phaedon Sinis - politiki lyra (kemence); Timothy Quigley - percussion. In the coming weeks, Barbes will also present concerts by Syrian singer Gaida (Feb 26), CTMD Touring Artist Andy Statman (March 5) and Red Baraat, a North Indian marching band (March 7). Barbes is at 376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.) in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For more information go to the club's website.

Our dear friend, Cantor Janet Leuchter (a wonderful Yiddish folksinger in her own right), is hosting a house concert on the Upper West Side of new songs written by NEA National Heritage Award Winner Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman on Sunday, March 1 at 5 pm. Schaechter-Gottesman herself will sing, as well as Adrienne Cooper, Paula Teitelbaum and Hy Wolfe. For more information, contact Cantor Leuchter at jleuchter(at)nyc.rr.com.

Our friends at the RagaChitra Foundation, which works to perpetuate South Indian carnatic music from their studio in Queens, have announced that their Queens Cable TV show for Indian Classical music & dance is now available online. You can watch it on Google Videos by clicking here.