Medieval history The Hopak developed initially as a
Cossack social dance (,
translit. pobutovi tantsi), and was practiced in the lands of present-day
Ukraine beginning in the 16th century. While the militaristic
Zaporizhian Sich generally frowned upon amusements and diversions from military training, such regulations were overlooked when Kozaks returned victorious after battle.
Kobzars and other musicians would gather their instruments -
violins,
bagpipes,
bandura,
cimbaloms, and
sopilka - while others would dance. ) This celebratory was performed only by male participants, as they took place in an all-male environment. The performers were young, boisterous mercenaries, and not professional dancers; as such, the dance steps performed were predominantly
improvisational, reflecting the performers' sense of manliness, heroism, speed and strength. The steps exhibited included many acrobatic jumps (,
translit. ). Often fights from the battlefield would be re-enacted in
pantomime, with real swords, lances or other weaponry, as the performer lashed out at invisible enemies. These dances were not tied down to specific rhythms, and the dancers could change tempo at any point. Such festive dancing differed greatly in character from the older ritual dances (,
translit. obryadovi tantsi), such as the
Khorovod, which had previously been the dominant
choreographic works in
Ruthenian lands. A primary distinction was the gender of the participants – all male – as opposed to the predominantly all-female ritual dances. With the elevation of Cossack status in the region, began to appear in the villages within their domain. Unlike the all-male dances found in the Sich, these dances were mixed, with young boys and girls dancing celebratory movements together. While the lead role was retained by male performers, structural elements began to be added in, such as
circle forms and pairs moving together in formation; these developments most likely were derived from the choreographic history of ritual dances in the area. None of the dances performed by Cossacks during this time were ever recorded.
Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan recorded the fact that Cossacks danced in such a manner, and other historical accounts verify this. Later,
Ivan Kotlyarevsky and
Taras Shevchenko incorporated the Hopak and dancing Cossacks into their works. However, with the destruction of the Sich in the 18th century, the dance survived only in its mixed-gender village format as a celebratory dance.
Concert dance After Hopak-like dances began to be performed on stage in the 18th century in
Serf and
Peasant theaters, professional dramatic troupes began to incorporate this popular dance into their repertoire. These performances only incorporated the Hopak into a larger opus, such as Kotliarevsky's
operetta Natalka Poltavka. It was the pioneering work of a performer in a dramatic ensemble, the
ethnochoreologist Vasyl Verkhovynets, in the early 20th century, that enable the dance to develop into its current format. Verkhovynets' initial work entailed gathering authentic village steps throughout central
Ukraine and constructing dances which more accurately represented the
Ukrainian cultural tradition. His break-through, however, was demonstrating that staged
Ukrainian dance could exist as a distinct
performing art, in the form of
concert dance. He and his disciple
Vasyl Avramenko began staging performances throughout western Ukraine, forming troupes of dancers in village after village. In the spring of 1935, the
All-Union Organization of Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries agreed to send a delegation to the upcoming
First International Festival of the Folk Dance in
London. Verkhovynets worked with
Leonid Zhukov of the
T. Shevchenko Kyiv Opera and Ballet, and professional dancers from both the Kyiv and
Kharkiv Opera houses, on constructing a suite to represent the
Ukrainian SSR. For his part, Verkhovynets choreographed what became known as the "London Hopak" (,
translit. londonskiy hopak): this was a 3-part dance, consisting of a men's dance (much like the original Kozak dance), a second, slower segment danced only by women, and finally a rousing closing with both male and female dancers sharing the stage. This dance, along with Zhukov's addition, won the first prize at the festival that summer. The 3-part Hopak was later reprised in September back in Ukraine as part of the opera,
Zaporozhets za Dunayem. The format of the 3-part Hopak was subsequently adopted by many professional folk dance ensembles who have choreographed their own variants of Hopak through the years. In 1990, twenty members of the
State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR, split off and created the Hopak! Ukrainian Dance Company, Ukraine's first independent professional dance company, under the direction of Sergei Makarov. == Dance steps ==