Ukrainian Albertans are using dance to fight back against the war

Shane Gibson stands tall at the front of the dance studio, shifting from his left foot to right foot, as he waits for the dancers to begin rehearsing their Bukovynian number.

It's a Ukrainian dance with steps that hail from the same region Gibson's family comes from in western Ukraine.

The number is part of a show the Tryzub Ukrainian Dance Society is remounting called Heroiam Slava, or Glory To The Heroes. 

The show, a blend of traditional and contemporary dance, is one Gibson describes as a celebration of a "beautiful culture" that is interrupted by a war and then explores the effects it has on regular people.

It showcases background images from the front lines of Ukraine's battlefield, and uses traditional costumes, as well as costumes that look like the uniforms of Ukrainian soldiers in 2014, when the Crimean Peninsula was seized from Ukraine by Russia.

"It's more relevant now than it ever has been," said Gibson, Tryzub's artistic director.

Tryzub, like many other Ukrainian dance groups across the province, is grappling with the impacts of Russia's now full-blown invasion into Ukraine — and a sense of urgency to show solidarity through dance.

Gibson began choreographing the show in 2017, after learning that two of his friends he had met through dancing in Ukraine had died on the front.

They had gone to fight after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and the fighting intensified in the Donbas region where Russia has been backing separatists.

"I found the opportunity to be able to tell a story because as artists, really, that's that's our only recourse to the world," said Gibson.

Heroiam Slava first hit the stage in 2019, and then it toured across Ukraine.

However, when news began emerging this year that Russia was on the