Gurdeep of the Yukon partners with Shumka dancers of Edmonton on message of support to Ukraine

Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon continues to be the timeline cleanse people need.

The Punjab-born social media star now living in the far north of Canada has built a reputation on spreading joy and positivity through dance, specifically the Punjab folk dance called bhangra.

On Tuesday, International Women's Day, he dedicated a dance to his mother and sisters. Earlier in the week, he shared a video of a cackling outdoor fire just so more people could enjoy the sounds.

The Ukrainian Shumka dancers of Canada in Edmonton & I joined our artistic forces together to send love, support, hope & solidarity to the people of Ukraine. We blended Ukrainian traditional dance & Punjabi Bhangra dance together to create "one Canadian voice" for peace & unity. pic.twitter.com/hLImPevqG7

— Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon (@GurdeepPandher) March 4, 2022

However, a video from a few days prior has especially struck a chord and as of Monday, had been viewed more than half a million times.

The video isn't off brand for the man with nearly 200,000 Twitter followers; in fact, Pandher believes it's precisely what he promises to deliver and there's no greater need than now.

"It's very, very important during the time of crisis to give them this message of hope, this message of joy, too," he told CTV News Edmonton.

The video is a one-minute reel of Pandher learning Ukrainian dance from professional Shumka dancers in Edmonton, and him returning the favour.

"It was kind of an exciting and nerve-wracking experience," said 23-year-old Elyse Dzenick, who was one of five Shumka dancers who spent an hour with Pandher on Zoom on March 3.

"I've never done bhangra dancing before but my Ukrainian heritage and Ukrainian culture are things I'm very proud of and something I really love about where we live is having those opportunities to exchange cultures and cultural knowledge."

Pandher considers sharing and promoting culture a core piece of his work.

"We see that people are feeling divided and they feel sometimes frustrated. It creates a lot of tension and stress in societies everywhere in the world, so by delivering these kind of messages, I remind people that actually we are all together, we are all united," he explained.

"Consider ourselves as one human race."

'WE'RE STANDING WITH THEM AND THEY'RE STANDING WITH US'

Dzenick and fellow dancer Nic Pacholok are third- and fourth-generation Canadians. While neither has family in Ukraine, some of their colleagues do and the dance company has partnered with artists in the country targeted by Vladimir Putin.

It has been very hard watching the conflict escalate, so for Pandher to reach out was very heartwarming, they said.

"It's nice that we can rely and lean on our other brothers and sisters across Canada of all communities, all cultures," Pacholok said.

"A lot of folk dance all kind of comes from a similar place in the human experience, right? Even though it's different types of folk dance, often folk dance comes from a place of tradition and it ties people to their own cultures," he continued.

"So when we're doing this dance together…it's a way for us – the best way we at Shumka know how – to show what we're feeling right now and be able to share that with people of other cultures and show that we're standing with them and they're standing with us."

Both the Shumka dancers and Pandher have been flooded with messages of gratitude since the video was posted, which the social media influencer considers a sign "that people are looking for peace and hope in the world."

As for the technical, both parties called the other a quick study.

"Ukrainian dance is a very versatile and very broad type of dancing, so there's a lot of different type syncopations, a lot of different rhythms. There is a place in Gurdeep's bhangra dancing that we could kind of find a bit of similarity with, so I think that kind of helped us be able to get into his style a little faster. And same him to our dancing as well," Pacholok reported.

But, his colleague Dzenick noted, "Something I've come to learn is that you don't have to be amazing at dance to love it."

"Just having the opportunity to do that, to have a safe place to express ourselves, like whatever your emotions are, whatever is happening in your life, I think that's the bigger message. And that we're all human first."

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon (@gurdeeppandher)

Pandher promised to continue featuring different cultures on his platforms. For example, he and an Irish dancer are hosting a virtual "Irish and Punjabi Bhangra dance mashup" for St. Patrick's Day.

He sees the collaborations as an opportunity to spread a message.

"We are just people. All those things – like countries, regions – they are more imaginary. They are created for administrative purposes. But eventually, we belong to the whole world, the whole universe."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Sean Amato and Katie Chamberlain