'This is the way I heal my soul': Ukrainian theatre troupe express selves through arts

Artis is a theatre troupe of close to 30 Ukrainians who now call Calgary home.

They've been in Canada anywhere from a few months to two years.

Snizhana Bora was a professional actor in Ukraine and she now leads the troupe, some of whom have experience acting and some of whom do not.

"I love what I'm doing and I did it all my life from my childhood time to now," she said.

"I was always in theatre and when war started, I lost everything. I lost home, I lost theatre, I lost my career, I lost my friends. (I lost) a lot of things."

Bora has been in Calgary for 15 months with her three-year-old daughter.

Now, she's building a community through Artis.

It's therapy for her and her actors.

"I spoke with one of the actors and she said, 'You know, before I had big depression for one and half years and today, I realized, like, I don't have it. I'm coming here and I feel so relaxed and so good and what we are doing, for me, it's my therapy and I can feel home here,'" Bora said.

"(The actor said she can now see Calgary) as her home and that's important."

Bora says she needed to escape Ukraine because it was so dangerous and she wanted to come to Canada because she didn't feel safe in Europe.

Anastasiia Haiduchenko came to Canada with her husband from Kherson in southern Ukraine.

They spent two months under Russian occupation.

"Then, I had to leave but my family – my mom, dad, two of my grandmothers – they stayed because my grandmothers have disabilities, so they couldn't leave," she said.

"It was really tough and it's hard for me to talk about that just because I really want to go there and see them but I'm so scared.

"Sometimes, I feel embarrassed to say that I don't want to go back right now because I feel that I wouldn't make it mentally."

Haiduchenko enjoys the escape of rehearsals at Artis.

"Back in Ukraine, theatre was a really big part of my life and I was in theatre group," she said.

"My family and I used to go and see a lot of performances – opera, theatre, concerts. (We love the arts) back in Ukraine. This is part of our soul, this part of our culture."

Haiduchenko says meeting with other Ukrainians is helping her heal mentally and emotionally.

"I always say this is my therapy and this is the way I heal my soul," she said.

"I don't know what I would do if I wouldn't have it."

Yuliia Melnykova came to Canada with her mom and cousin two years ago.

She keeps in contact with her family back home and says for now, they're safe.

"It's very difficult for me because I lost two people. Yes, the Russians killed them," she said.

"It's actually very difficult for me. They were very close people to me."

She also says working on the production is an escape.

"I like this very much. It's like my second family," she said.

"Usually we come after work. We're tired. ... But here, everything disappears."

Vlad Tershchuk came to Calgary by himself to escape the conflict and he always knew he'd end up in North America.

"When I was a kid, I always told my parents that I wanted to visit North America because I wanted to be a cowboy," he said.

"So yeah, my dream in some kind of way came true."

Tershchuk is excited to share a bit of his culture through Artis with Calgarians.

"I appreciate this community just because there are a lot of talented people – very interesting, intelligent people who I already became friends (with), so we know each other," he said

"Not for a long time but still, they are friends for me and for me, this community is something like a culture to share so all of us have this cultural mindset, and it's really a good thing we can share it with the others, with Canadians and other nations."

The troupe is currently rehearsing a physical theatre production of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, based on the story by Richard Bach. The Seagull Inside You will be performed at the Inside Out Theatre by Artis, premiering Sept. 17 and then running Sept. 18-21.

You can learn more about Artis here.