ST. PAUL – On Feb. 1, the St. Paul Desna Ukrainian Dance Club held its annual perogy fundraiser supper, drawing 400 attendees for an evening of food, dance, and celebration of Ukrainian culture.
Beyond being a fundraiser, the evening also served as an opportunity for the younger performers of the dance club to take to the stage and, "See where they're at before we go into the festival season," said Fr. Peter Haugen, president of the club.
"I'm just always so impressed to see these kids in their costumes . . . with the music . . . and the courage of a lot of our dancers," he also said. "It's not easy to stand in front of a crowd of 400 on a stage and perform."
Club update
The dance club is now gearing up for its 31st Annual Desna Dance Festival, set to take place in March. Hundreds of dancers from across the regio, and beyond, will come to St. Paul to perform.
"There's a lot of good things happening," said Haugen.
He adds that membership with the dance club is increasing.
"Our new numbers, thank goodness, are still climbing and not declining after the unfortunate drop in numbers since COVID," he said.
"We're slowly continuing to climb and grow and that's all we can hope for."
