Dukla Ukrainian Song And Dance Ensemble

The Dukla Ukrainian Song And Dance Ensemble is a professional folk ensemble within the Dukhnovych Theater in Presov, Slovakia. The song-and-dance ensemble was created in 1956 as the Dukla Ukrainian Folk Ensemble (Підуклянський український народний ансамбль) or PULS. Its goal was to help preserve and propagate the musical and dance culture of the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia, who at the time were officially designated as Ukrainians. In the 1960s and 1970s PULS toured numerous times to various countries in both eastern and western Europe (in particular France and Germany), and eventually North America. While PULS popularized Rusyn folk music and dance at home and abroad, it did so under the rubric “Ukrainian.” In the post-Communist era the ensemble has ceased to identify itself as Ukrainian and has reduced its name to PULS, derived from the Slovak-language acronym (PUL’S) of its original Ukrainian name. Among the company’s artistic directors and choreographers have been Iurii Kostiuk, Shtefan Ladizhins’kyi, Iurii Tsymbora, and Melania Nemcova. Two of its singers—Mariia Machoshko and Rudolf Smoter—have through performances and recordings successfully popularized Rusyn songs throughout the former Czechoslovakia. Bibliography: Mykhailo Drobniak, ed., PUNA/PUL’S (Bratislava and Presov, 1980).