For a long time I wanted to see a performance by the Ukrainian dance group Iz Perzem (translated “With the peppers”), where my friend Halyna Kubiv is also dancing. Halyna is an editor by profession and has lived in Munich for a long time. She has been part of the Iz Perzem ensemble for three years now. I had seen many photos from the performances on social media and I was always very impressed. The group has dedicated itself to the traditional dances of my homeland, of course in our national costume. It always brings back memories of my childhood, because I saw many performances with these dances. They are a hallmark of our culture.
Dance group Iz Perzem with traditional costumes of Ukraine.
(Photo: Emiliia Dieniezhna / oh)
With their performance in a Munich BRK retirement home, the dancers give an insight into Ukrainian culture.
(Photo: Emiliia Dieniezhna / oh)
A week ago the opportunity arose to attend a performance by Iz Perzem in Munich. The group danced at the summer festival of a retirement home run by the Bavarian Red Cross. Unfortunately, that was also the day after the storm that swept over Munich. That’s why there were no S-Bahn trains. But the performance of the dance group was enormously important to me. It took me an hour and a half by bike and subway, but I have no regrets. They danced and sang to Ukrainian music, so I almost felt like I was in a “little Ukraine” in the middle of Munich. The spectators liked it very much and I was proud to be Ukrainian.
Iz Perzem have been around for about 13 years and since the Russian war of aggression they have been particularly active to represent our dance culture. Most of the dancers still train after work, and the performances are mostly in the evenings. But it’s really great what they bring to the stage. The group consists of people who have long left our homeland. Ukrainians who were born in Germany are also there. Just like compatriots who fled to Munich before the war. There are even two double refugees, Roman and Viktoria. The two first fled Luhansk and Donetsk to Kiev, from where they then set out for Munich in February 2022.
The dance group is very colorful, but also very united in their desire to bring our culture closer to Germans and Europeans. You could see them in Munich at the Kulturtage, in Stuttgart, and also at festivals in the Czech Republic and France. Everywhere they are very well received – like last week in the nursing home.
The group danced three different parts. Very lively and amusing at first, knowing Ukrainian music. After that it got sadder, which fits with our current state of mind. And at the end there was the Ukrainian Hopak, our famous dance with artistic leaps in the air.
The hopak, a famous Ukrainian dance, features acrobatic jumps that take the audience’s breath away.
(Photo: Emiliia Dieniezhna / oh)
I saw smiles and tears in the eyes of the elderly at the same time. Many of them can understand our situation particularly well because they had to experience something similar during the Second World War. I spoke to some women who had been through the war and flight themselves. A 92-year-old resident of the retirement home, who was born in Poland, told me how she fled to Germany at the time. She really liked the performance of the dance group because it corresponded to her motto in life: Although life can be difficult, one should enjoy it, she said. I’ll take that advice with me. And heartily recommend enjoying a performance by the dance group Iz Perzem if the opportunity arises.
Emiliia Dieniezhna, 35, fled from Kiev with her then four-year-old daughter Ewa Pullach near Munich. She works voluntarily for the non-governmental organization NAKO, which aims to fight corruption in Ukraine. She also teaches German to Ukrainian refugee children. Once a week she writes a column for the SZ about her view from Munich on the events in her home country.