Orest Semchuk joined Shumka in 1961. Over the years, he transitioned from dancer to Artistic Director and choreographer. After retiring from those roles, Orest continued to support Shumka as the stage manager for many of Shumka’s productions.

“When I took over, I started throwing in more ballet-type movements. Not for the dancing, but for the preciseness of movements. After that, I started thinking, ‘Well, now where do we go from here?’ So we started incorporating storylines. We would make up a little story, and Gene would of course do the music. He would add things to make the music more dramatic. The dancers were more precise in their movements and their posture, but now we’re asking them to be actors too. It was really great to see the dancers embracing it; everyone was willing to try something new. From that came this whole cooperation from several people. Many people wanted to present their ideas and we encouraged that.”

Orest made the decision to have every dancer wear red boots for Hopak! Until then, red and black boots were mixed. “We switched to everyone wearing red boots because Virksy and other Ukrainian groups used one colour for everyone. From a theatrical perspective, it just looked better and the red was so much nicer than the black.”

Orest strengthened Shumka’s presentation visually and theatrically. He valued cooperation and contributions from everyone and introduced more people to the whirlwind that is Shumka. Thank you, Orest.