) , birth_date = , birth_place =

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now Ukraine) , death_date = , death_place =

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(now Ukraine) , nationality = , other_names = , occupation = , years_active = , known_for = , notable_works = Pavlo Pavlovych Virsky ( uk, Павло Павлович Вірський) (February 2, 1905 –July 5, 1975), PAU, was a Soviet and Ukrainian dancer, ballet master,

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

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

Ukrainian dance ''Ukrainian dance'' ( uk, Український тaнeць, translit. ''Ukrainian 'tanets' '') mostly refers to the traditional folk dances of the Ukrainians as an ethnic group, but may also refer dance of the other ethnic groups within Ukrain ...

was groundbreaking and influenced generations of dancers.

Early days

Pavlo Virsky was born on February 25, 1905, in

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

Tekhnikum A tekhnikum (russian: техникум) is a type of vocational school in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, as well as in modern Russia, Ukraine and some other post-Soviet states. The term was borrowed from 19th-century German education, where ...

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

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

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

Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre , logo_caption = Logo , image = Operniy-5.jpg , image_size = 270px , caption = Odesa Theatre of Opera and Ballet , address = Tchaikovsky Lane 1 , city = Odesa , country = , designation = Architectural Landmark , coordinates = , archite ...

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'' (russian: Красный мак, Krasniy mak) or sometimes ''The Red Flower'' (russian: Красный цветок, Krasniy tsvetok) is a ballet in three acts and eight tableaux with an apotheosis, with a score written by Rein ...

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

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, 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 Rive ...

petrovsk, and

, 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'' (russian: Раймонда) is a ballet in three acts, four scenes with an apotheosis, choreographed by Marius Petipa to music by Alexander Glazunov, his Opus 57. It was first presented by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Mariinsky ...

'', '' La Esmeralda'', '' Le Corsaire'', ''

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

'', and ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

''.

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 Vitaliyovych Lysenko ( uk, Мико́ла Віта́лійович Ли́сенко; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a List of Ukrainian composers, Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic mus ...

's opera ''

Natalka Poltavka ''Natalka Poltavka'' ( uk, Наталка Полтавка, ) is a Ukrainian play written by Ivan Kotlyarevsky. The Opera in 2 acts, ''Natalka Poltavka'', was the last scheduled performance by The Kyiv Opera Company at the National Opera House o ...

'', and

Semen Hulak-Artemovsky Semen Stepanovych Hulak-Artemovsky ( uk, Семен Степанович Гулак-Артемовський, also referred to as Semyon Gulak-Artemovsky and Artemovs’kyj) ( – ), was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian opera composer, singer (baritone), ...

's opera ''

Zaporozhets za Dunayem ''Zaporozhets za Dunayem'' ( uk, Запорожець за Дунаєм, translated as ''A Zaporozhian (Cossack) Beyond the Danube'', also referred to as ''Cossacks in Exile'') is a Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with mu ...

(A Zaporizhian ozakBeyond the Danube)'', the latter which included choreographed

Ukrainian folk dances Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * Som ...

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 of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

, 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 Stalin Prize winners 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