When Barry Bilinsky got a call inviting him to research and co-direct Shumka’s Ancestors and Elders, he didn’t know what he was in for. With a theatre background, Barry’s expertise is in acting, not Ukrainian or Powwow dance.

“When we first started, I felt like everyone was an expert, where I didn’t really know what I was doing. But later that actually helped me out. I was able to step back and constantly look at the big picture; where to ask people to slow down when they’re ready to run in one direction, and just say “let’s take a second and think this through”.

Once everyone got a sense of what the cultural implications of A&E were, Barry was already completely invested in the storyline. Before he started on the show, Barry was on a journey to learn about his Métis and Cree heritage on a deeper level, one that actually helped him realize how important it was to get this show on stage for an audience. One of the biggest challenges he, and the rest of the artistic team, faced was presentation. They had to overcome any expectations they, the dancers, the audience, or anyone else involved in the show might have. They constantly had to consider what were appropriate ways to present each element of the show in a respectful and honourable way. Naturally, this led to finalizing details last minute, even as they were loading into the Jubilee Auditorium. By the second year of performing A&E, Barry could already see how the show needed to be tweaked to reflect the relevant conversations happening outside of the performing world. “If we redid the show, we would have to adjust the show again to keep it relevant to current conversations.”

One of the best things to come out of the piece were the connections between members of the production. “There are so many stories to tell…. For the last performance we did, we did two pre-show circles. (Co-director) Joe (Hoffman) did an up-beat, get-your-blood-pumping type of circle, and I led the smudging circle, which was more about grounding and remembering that we were in a sacred space. We balanced each other out well, and that really reminded me that the best way to run anything was through shared responsibility.”

Thank you, Barry, for reminding us of the importance of respect for all cultures… and for taking the chance of working with Shumka on this milestone project.