root salad DakhaBrakha
It’s March in Kiev and Andrew Cronshaw’s slipped over to see a favourite band in a critical location.
I
’ve thrilled to live shows by the Ukrainian wedding-dressed, tall- hatted quartet DakhaBrakha in various places around Europe, and interviewed them for the piece in fR 353/354 when they played Womad UK. But I’ve always aimed to see them on home ground.
In early March I heard they were doing a hometown gig in Kyiv (Kiev) a few days later, just a couple of weeks after things there in the Maidan protest had come to a head. I’ve surprised myself by how moved I am by events in Ukraine, and this seemed the right moment for an impulsive short-notice trip to see the show and also to get beyond the news reports to a personal experience.
I find Kyiv calm and safe-feeling; the focus has moved to Crimea, 700 kilometres away. The city centre and its environs are pleasant and interesting, and I spend the day of the gig walking for miles around it in bright sunshine, particularly spending time in the EuroMaidan protest encamp- ment that began in November at Maidan (which means ‘the square’) and along much of the city’s main street. It’s still there, as are many of the now weather- beaten individuals who’ve been living there around their smoky oil-drum bra- ziers from the start. The violent reaction to a peaceful popular protest against presi- dent Yanukovych and fellow self-enrichers dominating the government and turning towards the blandishments of Russia rather than those of Europe, changed the situation to something much darker, and the need for intelligent, peaceful people power hasn’t finished yet.
The Euromaidan stage, the now iconic conical Christmas tree, the tents, the food servers and all, the tyre barricades with openings for people to move through, covered in literally millions of carefully laid out bunches of flowers, given by the peo- ple in memory of those killed. People of all ages, couples and families move quietly among them in the sunlight, looking, pho- tographing, and it seems wondering ‘what happened – what will happen?’
One small but salient feature: there’s
no litter. Kyivans not only swept Maidan after the onslaught, ordinary people in everyday clothes with domestic brushes continue to sweep and gather together rubbish into sacks, not just in Maidan but even in unfrequented places down by the river Dnieper.
The DakhaBrakha show, at a large new club venue, Sentrum, is packed. Beginning with a silence for the more than a hundred killed at Maidan, the band delivers a two-hour-twenty-minute set,
just their four voices, cello, drums, accordeons from time to time and an occa- sional stark note on piano. It didn’t seem anything like that long, the well-judged flow moving between slow-pulse num- bers – the three women’s perfectly blend- ed edgy white-voices, and Marko Halanevych’s male voice sometimes rising to the highest, sweetest of falsetto – and wild drum-pounding up-tempos.
T
The predominantly young, intelligent- looking, considerate audience stands shoulder-to-shoulder, attentive and enthu- siastic, eyes shining, some embracing, drinking it all in. I’d been wondering what sort of audience the band attracts at home; this is it, and it’s a good sign for Ukraine’s future.
he following day, before my flight home, I meet up with Marko Halanevych and Nina Garenetska (the cello-wielding one) at their
home base, the tiny, innovating Dakh independent theatre founded and directed by Vlad Troitskyi, where everyone does everything and DakhaBrakha are actor/musicians. Troitskyi, who came by while we were chatting, is a charismatic creative intelligence who dreamed up the band, and has had a great benevolent influence on its shaping (as he has on a new French-cabaret-meets-Ukrainian-girl- punk project, Dakh Daughters, of which Nina is a member).
DakhaBrakha’s unique visual image comes from theatre. “Theatre’s basis is visual”, says Marko. “It was Tatiana, the Dakh theatre designer, who had the idea for the dresses. We agreed that we want-
ed not strictly authentic costumes, but to imply those sort of clothes. Like our music, our costumes are sort of a development from tradition. And the hats – in the Hut- sul region many people wear them. Actu- ally these are men’s hats.”
The band members were active at Maidan, including performing on the stage there, and are of course very occu- pied by what’s happening, and keeping it peaceful. Marko enlarges: “Tolerance has been one of the main features of the Ukrainian nation throughout history. We were there on Maidan for three months. Some people were a bit crazy, they called for taking up arms, but we were insisting that it’s a peaceful resistance, and we were doing our best not to let blood be spilled. And the thing that’s going on in Crimea right now, we’re trying to calm everything down, not to let anyone be killed or shot. We want to show our peaceful resistance. Still in Ukraine people speaking Russian and Ukrainian can live together peacefully. Just now when I was coming here from my home I saw a fresh graffiti. It wasn’t about aggression or religion, it was just the phrase ‘Love is life’".
There have been very well-received shows abroad, including in the Anglo- phone lands of USA and Australia, and have more to come in the UK this July including Womad – but so far the band members’ conversational English is mini- mal, so big thanks to Anna Koriagina for brilliant, understanding two-way transla- tion. Thanks too to Aida and Andrii for showing me places I’d never have found.
www.dakhabrakha.com.ua F 17 f
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