Pavlo Pavlovych Virsky (; 2 February 1905 – 5 July 1975) was a Soviet and Ukrainian dancer,

ballet master A ballet master (also balletmaster, ballet mistress, ''premier maître de ballet'' or ''premier maître de ballet en chef'') is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In mo ...

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

, and founder of the Pavlo Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble, whose work in

Ukrainian dance ''Ukrainian dance'' (, translit. ''Ukrainskyi tanets'') mostly refers to the traditional folk dances of the Ukrainians as an ethnic group, but may also refer to dances originating from the multiple other ethnic groups within Ukraine. A ''house ...

was groundbreaking and influenced generations of dancers.

Early days

Pavlo Virsky was born on February 25, 1905, in

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. After graduating from the Odesa Music and Drama School in 1927, he continued his studies in Moscow, at the Theater

Tekhnikum A tekhnikum () is a type of secondary vocational school in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, as well as in modern Russia, Ukraine and some other post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the ...

, from 1927 to 1928. Beginning in 1925, state theaters began to be organized throughout the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

, allowing for gainful employment for artists, and upon his return to Odesa in 1928, Virsky joined the

Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre The Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre () is the oldest theatre in Odesa, Ukraine. The Theatre and the Potemkin Stairs are the most famous edifices in Odesa. The first opera house was opened in 1810 and destroyed by fire in 1873. T ...

as a dancer and choreographer. It was at this theater that he collaborated with Mykola Bolotov in their first joint production: Gliere's ''

The Red Poppy ''The Red Poppy'' () or sometimes ''The Red Flower'' () is a ballet in three acts and eight tableaux with an apotheosis, with a score written by Reinhold Glière and libretto by Mikhail Kurilko. This ballet was created in 1927 as the first Sovie ...

''. Virsky left Odesa in 1931, and worked as a ballet master at various theatres, including those in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

petrovsk, and

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, working on productions of

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

s such as ''

Raymonda ''Raymonda'' () is a ballet, grand ballet in three acts, four scenes with an apotheosis, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Alexander Glazunov (his Opus number, opus 57) and libretto by Lydia Pashkova. ''Raymonda'' was creat ...

'', '' La Esmeralda'', ''

Le Corsaire ''Le Corsaire'' is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem '' The Corsair'' by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to ...

'', ''

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoje ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, links=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failu ...

'', and ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

''.

Folk dance

The Kyiv Opera and Ballet brought two productions to Moscow in 1936 as part of the first festival of Ukrainian Literature and Art:

Mykola Lysenko Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko (; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic period. In his time he was the central figure of Ukrainian music, with an ''oeuvre'' tha ...

's opera ''

Natalka Poltavka ''Natalka Poltavka'' () is a Ukrainian play written by Ivan Kotliarevsky. The Opera in 2 acts, ''Natalka Poltavka'', was the last scheduled performance by The Kyiv Opera Company at the National Opera House of Ukraine named after Taras Shevch ...

'', and

Semen Hulak-Artemovsky Semen Stepanovych Hulak-Artemovsky (, also referred to as Semyon Gulak-Artemovsky and Artemovs’kyj) ( – ), was an opera composer, baritone, actor, dramatist and pioneer of Ukrainian theatre who worked in Imperial Russia. He is known mainly ...

's opera '' Zaporozhets za Dunayem (A Zaporizhian ozakBeyond the Danube)'', the latter which included choreographed

Ukrainian folk dances Ukrainian may refer or relate to: * Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe * Ukrainians, an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine * Demographics of Ukraine * Ukrainian culture, composed of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian peopl ...

by Pavlo Virsky and Mykola Bolotov. The following year, Virsky and Bolotov founded the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR, with which they developed an entire program of staged Ukrainian folk dances. With the outbreak World War II, and in the build-up to the

German-Soviet War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

, many ensembles suspended activity, as performers were enlisted to entertain the troops. Virsky continued his work with folk-themed choreography as the director of the Red Flag Song and Dance Ensemble of the Kyiv Military District beginning in 1939. In 1942, he left as that ensemble, and became the artistic director of the Red Army Song and Dance Ensemble dancers, and remained in that post for many years. In 1955, Virsky returned to Kyiv to helm the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR he founded, which had been reconstituted by others after the conclusion of the war. For the next 20 years (until his death in 1975) Pavlo Virsky developed the concepts of Ukrainian folk-stage dance further than had previously been imagined. He founded a school to train dancers in the technique he developed. He toured the world with his dancers, influencing Ukrainian dancers the world over. Virsky died on July 5, 1975, in Kyiv. The State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR was named after him in 1977.

References

External links

Ukrainian Weekly Article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virsky, Pavlo 1905 births 1975 deaths 20th-century Russian ballet dancers Dancers from Odesa People from Kherson Governorate Communist Party of the Soviet Union members People's Artists of the USSR Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Recipients of the title of People's Artists of Ukraine Recipients of the Shevchenko National Prize Recipients of the USSR State Prize Ballet choreographers Dance teachers Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire Russian choreographers Russian male ballet dancers Soviet choreographers Soviet male ballet dancers Ukrainian choreographers Ukrainian male ballet dancers Burials at Baikove Cemetery