Carol Scherban points her fuchsia shoes to one side and slides her arm down the wooden dance bar.
“It just brings back my youth and just keeps the child in me I guess,” explains the 73-year-old during a class at the Shumka Dance Centre at 10515 111th St.
Carol Scherban returned to Shumka dancing after a five-decade break. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)
“In those days it seems like when we got married, we quit Shumka for some strange reason and went onto our own careers.”
After Scherban retired from a career in nursing a couple of years ago, she came upon an ad for a new dance program.
“When I read seniors can Shumka, I thought why not,” she said. “I love it! I love it! It just fills my soul. It’s an hour of sheer delight.”
Tasha Orysiuk, creative director at the Shumka Dance Studio and instructor of Seniors Can Shumka, said she hears that often.
Seniors Can Shumka is a new twist on the dance tradition from a cultural institution that’s been in Edmonton for close to 60 years.
Instructor Tasha Orysiuk leads the group through a complicated sequence. (Sam Martin/CBC)
“We keep having more people join every single time and this is the first time we’ve done a spring session,” she said.
Over the eight-week period Orysiuk’s seen participants posture, muscle tone, co-ordination and musicality improve.
The dancers are from different backgrounds, not necessarily Ukrainian.
“To see people come and learn about my culture really means a lot to me,” Orysiuk said. “I think it’s very, very special.
“Even in our own Shumka Ukrainian dance company not everybody is Ukrainian and I think that’s so cool.”
Edward Paproski struts his way through the class, head up, back straight in time to a rousing polka.
The 78-year-old grew up in downtown Edmonton with three brothers and was familiar with Shumka dance and music.
Edward Paproski beams following a Seniors Can Shumka dance class. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)
“My parents escaped the genocide in the 1930s and we had nothing,” Paproski said. “My dad was a shoemaker, extreme poverty.”
His mother passed along a resilience and resourcefulness before dying at the age of 45, he said.
“I’m doing this with her in mind all the time, but I’m also doing it because it’s so good for me, so good for my health. It brings, honestly, goosebumps every time I’m doing this.
“It’s absolutely so invigorating.”
Members of the Seniors Can Shumka program work out at one of four studios at the Shumka Dance Centre at 10515 111th St. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)