He/Him When Maksym Kadziela was 11 years old, he began to lose interest in Ukrainian dance. But when his parents surprised him with a ticket to Shumka’s 50th Anniversary show, he was inspired to keep dancing and to expand his knowledge about Ukrainian culture and tradition. “Since that day, I made it my personal goal and worked towards joining Shumka.…
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He/Him Murray Steele has been in Shumka for over 13 years, but has been involved in the Alberta Ukrainian dance community his whole life. Murray began Ukrainian dancing over 30 years ago and has been an active dancer ever since. During his extensive dance career, Murray has had the pleasure of performing with the Viter and Volya Ukrainian Dance Ensembles, as well…
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She/Her Elyse Dzenick started her dance career at Dance Unlimited at 4 years old. She trained in many styles of dance, which gave her many performance opportunities and eventually led her to travel to, teach and perform throughout the USA, Japan, Germany, and Poland. Elyse joined the company in 2018 as a way to embrace Ukrainian culture and reconnect with…
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She/Her Annikka Dobko began her dance training at the age of 4 years old in Grande Prairie. There she studied ballet, modern, tap, jazz, lyrical and contemporary in addition to Ukrainian dance. At the age of 15, Annikka left home to pursue further ballet training at the School of Alberta in Calgary, Alberta. During her time in Calgary, she also…
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She/Her Courtney Basaraba can still recall the day Wendy Kolonsky came up to her at the age of 5 and said “you would be a great Ukrainian Dancer”. From that moment on Courtney was enamoured with Ukrainian dance. Courtney joined Shumka two and a half years ago. After taking a break to pursue rugby, Courtney watched Shumka’s Nutcracker and was…
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He/Him Jacob August began his dance career when he was three years old, and although at the time he took more of an interest in the stage lights, on some level he knew Ukrainian dance was going to be a life passion. After completing all the rigorous requirements for the company over the past five years, he was accepted as…
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She/Her Mara Palahniuk has been training in the styles of ballet and Ukrainian dance since she was three. Her love of dance has taken her all over the world including studies and performances with Alberta Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Joffrey Ballet in New York and the Royal Academy of Dance in London, England. However, she was always drawn to her…
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