Kids learn about Russian language, music and customs at library show
It was much more than a dance performance that dozens of kids and parents saw at the North Fort Myers Recreation Center utility room on Wednesday.
It was a lesson in Russian culture, language, music and customs, taught by a pair of musicians and dancers in an hour-long program sponsored by the Lee County Library System.
The Barynya dance ensemble, consisting of Mikhail Smirnov and Elina Karokhona, entertained with Russian, Kazak, Ukrenian and Jewish song and dances, while teaching everyone how to say certain words in Russian.
The show was one of the last ones they did as part of a tour of all the Lee County libraries.
The first dance portrayed two small children in an embrace while dancing across the floor, only to reveal the two small dancers was really one rather tall woman, Elena, to everyone’s surprise.
She not only proved to be a great dancer, as evidenced by the many dances she did between numerous costume changes. One of them she did while balancing a lit candle on her head, which she did not spill.
She was also a great musician with the ability to play string instruments with the dexterity of a heavy-metal guitarist as she and Smirnov played popular Russian folk songs.
Smirnov taught the children’s Russian tongue twisters, the Russian alphabet (which has many of the same letters, but with different pronunciation), and Russian musical instruments which kids had the chance to use during one of the songs.
The Barynya dancers performed at several Lee County library locations, including Cape Coral. Kristy Kilfoyle, events coordinator for the library system, said she saw the ensemble perform in Washington this past winter and thought it would be great to have them.
Barynya is a world- renowned dance group that was established by Smirnov in 1991 in New York City. He and Karokhona are only a component of the large ensemble that performs on some of the biggest stages in the world, in front of world leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush.
It has appeared on The Today Show, while Smirnov has served as a guest judge on televised dance competitions worldwide.