Yara Arts Group Brings MIDWINTER NIGHT to La MaMa, 12/27-30

Yara Arts Group (http://www.brama.com/yara) is a resident company of the world renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre, where it has created 25 original theater pieces based on material rooted in the cultures of East Europe, Central Asia and Siberia. Yara began collaborating with traditional artists from the Carpathians in 2003 and has developed performances with them in Kiev and New York. The results of this collaboration include the theatre pieces "Koliada: Twelve Dishes," "Still the River Flows" and "Winter Sun," all at La MaMa. Yara has also worked with such contemporary music groups as Gogol Bordello with whom they created "Song Tree” in 2000 and "Circle" in 1999 The Village Voice critic, Eva Waa Assantewa then wrote: "A stunningly beautiful work, 'Circle' rushes at your senses, makes your heart pound, and shakes your feelings loose."

Photographs and videos of the koliada ritual in the village of Kryvorivnia have been exhibited at the RA Gallery in Kiev, La Galleria and Ukrainian Institute in New York, Spring Street Gallery in Saratoga Springs and as a major art installation at the Ukrainian Museum in New York.

Yara's Koliada events were made possible with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and by Self-Reliance (NY) FCU, Coca Cola Company and Yara Arts Group's numerous friends and donors. For updates see www.brama.com/yara.

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