Edmonton Journal

A HISTORIC UNION

Cree and Ukrainian cultures collide in a celebratio­n of dance, Fish Griwkowsky writes.

- fgriwkowsk­y@postmedia.com twitter.com/fisheyefot­o

PREVIEW

Ancestors and Elders When: April 27, 28

Where: Jubilee Auditorium, 11455 87 Ave.

Tickets: $15 to $60 through ticketmast­er.ca Kokum and baba — Cree and Ukrainian for “grandmothe­r” — are at the heart of Ancestors and Elders, a multimedia dance production world-premiering in Edmonton on Friday and Saturday at the Jubilee Auditorium.

Another Cree word — mamowapowi­n — expresses the act of coming together. This union isn’t just Ancestors and Elders’ theme.

Bringing together more than 100 Alberta-based dancers, musicians, storytelle­rs, visual artists and designers, the overlying narrative follows a three-woman matriarcha­l family from each group, moving in and out of the past — through worlds beyond ours — and into the future.

But to get there over the past two years, its co-directors — Indigenous theatre artist Barry Bilinsky and Shumka’s artistic associate and choreograp­her Joseph Hoffman — had to confront the past. This included how Ukrainians came to live on “our home and native land.”

Bilinsky — of Métis/Cree descent — says: “When I was tasked with talking about Ukrainian settlement, the date jumped out at me. 1891 is when we celebrate the first Ukrainian family settling the plains. That concept of free land, and where did that come from? What does that history look like?

“The last Adhesion of Treaty 6 was signed in 1885, and that was essentiall­y the Crown looking to coerce Indigenous people to surrender territory. Part of that process was to get more people to come in and settle this territory.” Hoffman agrees it’s complicate­d. “And that’s where a lot of our research focused. How has this relationsh­ip manifested since we’ve been on this land together? There are a lot of beautiful stories about these sort of glancing interactio­ns, helping each other out on your way, and then carrying on.”

But, he says, “Although there was this obviously literal common ground, there was never a major moment in history where both cultures would come together as communitie­s and celebrate.”

Ancestors and Elders is such a moment.

Bilinsky notes: “Getting people in the same rehearsal space here has been part of that narrative. There’s also a common relationsh­ip to Canada, the idea of us trying to maintain communitie­s, living off territorie­s best as we could — but still being actively torn apart and put into different places.

“Even the Ukrainian communitie­s faced oppression in that era.”

Hoffman adds: “Survival hasn’t been easy for our cultures.

“Maintainin­g our cultures hasn’t been easy. That’s why we’re celebratin­g that we’ve been able to continue and evolve and still be cultures with strength and beauty and integrity that people see today.”

Bilinsky continues: “Particular­ly in this first meeting between communitie­s, it was great to try and boil it down to why do we still dance? What is that connection to those roots? And how has the history to both of our communitie­s’ relationsh­ip to this territory been affected by that?”

And, says Hoffman with a laugh, “How do you put these ideas into movement?”

In Ancestors and Elders, he says, “We take a look at both Ukrainian and Indigenous styles of dance in a contempora­ry setting. We look at historical aspects of the dancing, as well as bridging that with a little bit of contempora­ry movement.”

It’s here the co-directors started to explore the cultural overlap.

“A lot of people think it’s this outlandish idea that we have similar roots in terms of our movement because of what you see at a modern powwow or at a modern Ukrainian performanc­e,” says Hoffman.

But, “Even in the span of the last 100 years, Ukrainian dance didn’t become a stage art form until the 1930s.”

Bilinsky adds: “That whole (powwow) culture stemmed out of some of the oppressive actions that were happening, growing through that.”

Hoffman notes: “But where we’ve come from is much more simple in terms of footwork. When you boil it down, there’s a lot less variety, and that’s where the similarity comes from.

“The heritage we’ve evolved our dance forms from is very similar. We’ve been growing, sort of along a parallel in terms of our dance. Ukrainians have this Kolomeyka, and Indigenous cultures have this Round Dance. There’s a very clear parallel example right there.”

In the show, he notes, “We build these circles together and dance as one unit.”

With more than 100 artists involved, the process was unavoidabl­y collaborat­ive.

At first, says Bilinsky, “I would write a proposal, clearly from my perspectiv­e, and then Joe would have a rebuttal and we would mesh it out in the middle.”

They brought in former Edmonton poet laureate Anna Marie Sewell, who is in charge of the spoken word content, as Bilinsky puts it, “to lift our ideas into a whole other place. Even the writing process for the original libretto was pretty collaborat­ive.”

The visual art, which will be projected on seven moving screens, is by “another Indigenous-Ukrainian collaborat­ive team,” Bilinsky says. “Lana Whiskeyjac­k and Svitlana Kravchuk. They both put their hands on the same pieces of art.”

Hoffman adds: “Individual­ly they ’re both uniquely tied into the other culture. Svitlana is married to an Anishnaabe guy, and Lana was raised in a Ukrainian foster home for many years. They both have an understand­ing of the other side.”

The soundtrack, which includes Sewell’s poetry in Cree, Ukrainian and English, has a mix of singing, drums, flute, violins — even the elk calls, and Carissa Klopoushak, Mike Romaniak and Anders Hunter are behind the score.

Costumes will be a mix of traditiona­l — on Shumka dancers by the dozens and 12 Running Thunder Dancers — with new costumes by Megan Koshka, with consultati­on by Melissa-Jo (MJ) Belcourt Moses, Trinity Chopyk and MaryAnn Baziuk. These adorn eight dancers personifyi­ng land: wind, water, day, night, fire, flora, fauna and soil.

The narrative moves back and forth through the two matriarcha­l groups — including traditiona­l settings and meta-Ukrainian dance and powwow performanc­es — then into the spirit world, where some of the Cree characters deal with the pain of residentia­l schools.

“Once they find a space to heal in that world, they come back to the present,” says Bilinsky. “That’s when we move into the future and everybody starts jamming.

“We found, especially with the political and historical aspects, to come together we had to be as simple as possible. And being humble about the fact we’re at this stage, we might not have all the answers.

“So we’re just going to do what we know, which is these circles — this simplicity — and communitie­s coming together.”

 ?? PHOTOS: IAN KUCERAK ?? Dancers from Ukrainian Shumka Dancers and Running Thunder Dancers rehearse at the Shumka Dance Centre for the premiere of Ancestors and Elders, a production celebratin­g the rich heritage of both the Cree and Ukrainian people who made a life on the...
PHOTOS: IAN KUCERAK Dancers from Ukrainian Shumka Dancers and Running Thunder Dancers rehearse at the Shumka Dance Centre for the premiere of Ancestors and Elders, a production celebratin­g the rich heritage of both the Cree and Ukrainian people who made a life on the...
 ??  ?? Ancestors and Elders takes a look at both Ukrainian and Indigenous styles of dance in a contempora­ry setting.
Ancestors and Elders takes a look at both Ukrainian and Indigenous styles of dance in a contempora­ry setting.
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