Veselka Dance

Lisa received her ballet training at Pacific Dance Centre working her way through the Royal Academy of Dance exams, London England. She later graduated from Victoria Arts Collaborative Professional Division as a scholarship student and later joined the company. She continued her Ukrainian and character dance training with Veselka Ukrainian Dance School, and with the Volya Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Edmonton Alberta. Lisa has had the opportunity to work with some of North America's foremost choreographers and teachers. She has performed through out Canada and the U.S. In 1990 she became Dance Director of Veselka school and co-director of Veselka Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. She was appointed Artistic Director of Veselka in 1994. She currently teaches ballet, character and Ukrainian dance at Saltspring Arts Academy in addition to teaching at Veselka. She is has been a guest instructor at various summer programs as well as teaching in the Greater Victoria Public Schools.

Wendy joined Veselka in the fall of 1974, after being enthralled by their performance at Victoria's Folkfest that summer. Over the next 15 years, Wendy danced, performed and competed in many places including Seattle's FolkLife Festival, a Rotary Club tour in San Jose CA, the Pysanka Festival in Vegreville, and various places in the Okanagan, and on Vancouver Island. Wendy also attended numerous dance workshops in Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver and taught workshops in Campbell River, Courtenay/Comox, Nanaimo and Victoria. In 1989 she moved to Edmonton and danced with Volya for three years before returning to Victoria. Since the cancellation of Folkfest in 2007, Wendy has been the Coordinator for Heritage Day Dancefest held each June at the Bandshell in Beacon Hill Park, where hundreds of dancers representing over a dozen local multi-cultural groups perform in a continuous showcase of Victoria's ethnic energy.
For the past few years, Wendy has been active with the Board of Veselka, as well as teaching the basics of Ukrainian dance to adults. She also takes great pride seeing her kids dance with Veselka over the years..

Danielle has danced with Veselka for about 11 years. When she was 10 years old she performed a solo choreographed by Lisa Hall at Cheremosh Dance Competition in Edmonton, Alberta. She also won an award at the greater Victoria performing arts festival for the same solo. In 2008 Danielle also had the experience of participating in some dance workshops with various regional experts while travelling in Ukraine with Veselka. She has also volunteered with teaching the junior 1 class for a year and helped out with the summer dance camps. Danielle enjoys Ukrainian dance and hopes to inspire other children to dance and love it as much as she always has. This year Danielle will be teaching the beginner class in the hopes of creating magnificent dancers of the future.