Hello Readers!
It has been a very busy week in Shumka land performing in Saskatoon and preparing for our upcoming show in Regina, performances at UFest, the Elks game, and more!
It is all very exhilarating, yet just when we begin to be busy is usually when things begin to go awry.
This occurred back at the beginning of the tour two weeks before our Edmonton shows when many of the dancers in our company became sick with COVID-19 and as a result, couldn’t come to rehearsals. Thankfully, almost everyone recovered very quickly, and we were able to continue with our performances at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.
Shortly after those shows, it happened again when one of our busses carrying set pieces to Winnipeg got into an accident. Luckily no one was hurt, but unfortunately, some of our set pieces were damaged. Our resident facilities and transportation expert, professional morale booster, and proud backstage dad, Vlodko (Wally) Tarnawsky was on the case and slaved away for two whole days making sure that all our sets were beautiful and working to perfection. We are so unbelievably thankful to our “company тато” for everything he does (even if we don’t say it as often as we should)! Wally is so incredible that he even made a tryzub (тризуб) out of tape to use as the ‘My Yeh’ (Ми Є) spike mark for our final position simply because we were joking about how it should be one. It is people like Wally that ensure we are able to go onstage and only worry about pointing our toes, stretching behind our knees, and moving from our hips.
Not only that, but individuals like Wally help us dancers through our tough shows. Unfortunately, life on tour does not stop, personal tragedies occur, and we still must go on stage and perform as if nothing untoward is occurring. It becomes difficult within our Shumka family when we know someone is struggling, whether that be an illness, a death in the family, or something as simple as food poisoning. We all do our best to support one another through it.
Last week in Saskatoon two of our dancers came down with food poisoning just as we were arriving at the theatre. As we were working on the technical aspects of the show, we were also resetting different individuals into different dances to fill the spots of our food poison sufferers. Not only do the dancers work hard to fill in those roles when someone is unable to, but our costume director Trinity Chopyk-Kenneth ensures that those dancers are properly fitted in the costumes they need.
As well, we help each other when we can during the show. Whether that be grabbing water for someone, lending a pin for a headpiece, quick-changing people, whispering good luck in the wings, or simply smiling as you dance by.
Murphy’s First Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong and seeing how this week has begun makes me believe this is true. Since returning home from Saskatoon, three of our dancers have had to step out of the Regina show. This means that our rehearsals this week consisted of resetting dances, some, multiple times. Yet, there is a fresh energy exuding from the dancers and crew for our upcoming show, and because of our unbelievably amazing crew, I have no doubt that our show will run smoothly. For when nothing goes right, we just take a deep breath, squeeze one another’s hands, and go left.
Слава Україні!
Mara
