ATHABASCA - Fifty years is a long time. Fifty years ago, the Vietnam War was winding down, Bill Gates was founding Microsoft out of a garage, and the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank to the bottom of Lake Superior.
In Athabasca, the first group of Ukrainian Folk Dancers were getting ready to take the stage in handmade costumes for a cultural performance that would still be going strong half a century later.
“It all started with a group of parents that wanted to have their kids in Ukrainian Dance. Of course, there wasn’t anything in the surrounding area, so they hired an instructor and away they went from there,” said Brian Popowich, a long-time member, volunteer, and dancer with the club.
“It was mostly strictly Ukrainians that started it, with the church and all of that. There was a choir in the area that was incorporated in as well.”
On April 26, the club will host a dinner, recital, and alumni gathering to recognize and celebrate its 50th year of operation. Tickets for the event have been sold out for over a month, a rare feat in Athabasca, and Popowich said everyone is excited for the big day.
“We’re going to have a Ukrainian dinner, and a Ukrainian band, and we’re going to have an alumni dance. Past dancers wanted to participate, so we’re going to take this on and try and see if we can actually get back on stage,” said Popowich, who’ll be joining his fellows on stage.
The club is rolling its annual April show into the festivities, so attendees will have an opportunity to watch the bright coloured costumes and instructor-taught moves dance around the stage as well.
“The parents of the children, they want to keep this going. This is where that generational thing comes in. If I dance with my kids, then maybe someday there will be a grandchild that may dance as well,” said Popowich.
Popowich said the core ideas of wanting children to grow up with the culture their grandparents did has remained solid throughout the clubs existance. From generation to generation, parents have passed down their love of the activity and their culture to the kids.
“We now have students in our club that are from Ukraine and have come here, and now they’re dancing here and experiencing what maybe they didn’t do as young children back in their country, and they’re seeing the enjoyment of their culture here,” he said.
Gone are the days when a passerby might have heard two Grassland farmers talking about the price of crops or a new calf in fluent Ukrainian outside a store or the post office in town. Instead, new generations have turned to the arts as a way to keeping their family legacies alive, something Popowich hopes is getting new life from Ukrainian refugees.
“I think they’re bringing some of the traditions back with them, and infusing it a little here,” he said.
One area that has changed substantially is the costumes worn by the dancers. Originally handmade by family members, todays costumes come from specialty producers in Ukraine. While it’s outsourced some costs, it’s also kept the traditional styles around as the club continued to grow in members.
Choreography has also improved over the years. The majority of the teachers the club uses have studied in Ukraine, learning different techniques and styles from the eastern mountains to the low plains.
Unique opportunities
Each year, the club sends its dancer to competitions and recitals with our groups from across the Prairies, and they even sent a group to Ukraine before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was a big undertaking — it’s very expensive to experience a cultural festival where we all started. We went with our children and they went and did some showcases dancing throughout Ukraine,” said Popowich.
The group travelled to Kiev, Lutsk, Lviv and smaller centres where they performed alongside Ukrainian dancers from all over the world, including Australia and Great Britain.
