On December 10, 2025, second-year students (group BAMP1-24) of the Department of Performing Arts and Culture at Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design presented their creative work to the audience – a literary and ethnographic performance “Customs of Our People” based on the book by Oleksa Voropay. This was the final exam for the course “Stage Speech.”

Artistic directors Daniel Kino (stage speech) and Vitaly Kino (acting skills) called this production a genuine and profound exploration of Ukrainian traditions, folk rituals, and customs.

The students recreated a whole kaleidoscope of Christmas rituals, filling the stage with an authentic spirit. The students made their own “festive” props, including baking kaleta and balabushky, creating a Christmas Star, fake kotsiuby, kvacha, and even Didukh.

The girls kneaded dough and told fortunes, the boys joked and called on the “evil forces” and the malicious ice-cold Grandfather Frost, everyone together bit into kaleta, prepared twelve Christmas Eve dishes, and sowed seeds.

Ukrainian Christmas carols and New Year songs sounded soulfully in the performance, which were studied and rehearsed with the help of L.P. Makarenko, Associate Professor of the Department of Performing Arts and Culture.

The performance was a wonderful example of creative synergy. Talented students from the KNUTD College of Arts and Design helped our young actors with the props and decorations. They created several icons themselves, as well as characters from the Ukrainian Vertep, including the Goat.

The performance was informative and entertaining, but also deeply heartfelt. The audience enthusiastically received the work of the Workshop. The head of the department, Vira Burnazova, thanked the students and teachers for this wonderful, spiritual, and extremely relevant creative work. She emphasized the value of studying folk customs, culture, and traditions, as this is what shapes our unity and testifies to the ancient history of the Ukrainian nation.

Vitaliy Kino's acting workshop plans to show the newly presented play on various stages. This will be part of career guidance events aimed at promoting our young department and Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design in general!

18.12.2025