Collection 0058 - Life, dance and art of Chester Kuc

Andriy Nahachewsky is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta. He holds a B.A. in Ukrainian Studies (University of Saskatchewan, 1979), a B.F.A. in Dance (York University, 1985), M.A. and Ph.D. in Ukrainian Folklore (University of Alberta, 1985 and 1991, supervised by Bohdan Medwidsky). He has an extensive background in Ukrainian dance, as a performer, instructor, choreographer, workshop leader, critic, adjudicator, and authour. He has taught a wide variety of courses at the university level in many aspects of Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadian traditional culture. His research interests and publications deal with Ukrainian dance, Ukrainian Canadian identity, material culture, ethnic representation, and dance theory. He has conducted fieldwork in Canada, the U.S.A., Brazil, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, and other countries. His most recent book is Ukrainian Dance: A Cross-Cultural Approach (McFarland Press, 2012).

Andriy served as the Director of the Peter and Doris Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore and Curator of the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives since their inception and until summer of 2016. Dr. Nahachewsky retired in the summer of 2018, but continues his research and actively participates in the international dance research community.

Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn is an accomplished artist who has had the opportunity to create and exhibit her work around the world. She was born in Edmonton. At the age of 6 her parents enrolled her in art classes offered by the Edmonton Art Gallery, where her first instructor, “Man Woman”, encouraged her to continually explore the mediums at hand. Sembaliuk Cheladyn was also inspired by her father, Paul Sembaliuk - the designer of the large Vegreville Pysanka – who had a gift for interpreting cultural traditions within a contemporary environment. Sembaliuk Cheladyn graduated with her BFA in Art & Design (1981) and her MA in Ukrainian Folklore (2016) from the University of Alberta. She is best known for her watercolour paintings of flowers – poppies, sunflowers and endangered species are her specialty. As a 3rd generation Ukrainian Canadian she particularly enjoys painting images from her Ukrainian cultural heritage. Her unique depiction of Ukrainian dance, musical instruments, and typical Ukrainian imagery recreates fond memories of rich cultural traditions. Sembaliuk Cheladyn is also well known for illustrating a Canadian bestselling series of bilingual Ukrainian/English children’s books published by Kazka Productions.