Ryan Parker photographed Shumka dancer Kostiantyn Frolov for Dancing Their Way Home, a feature in Edify’s January / February 2026 issue, and for the contents page, where it was billed as A Step Into Home.
The story
Dancing Their Way Home
Frolov was born in Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine, and as a teenager was dancing with Kyiv’s Pavlo Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble, touring more than 20 countries and appearing with Shumka as a guest. After Russia occupied Luhansk in 2022, he and his wife, Anna, also a Virsky dancer, resolved to leave. He reached Toronto in January 2025, and Shumka, Canada’s only professional Ukrainian dance company and newly inducted into the Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame, invited him to join permanently, bringing the family to Edmonton.
He was photographed on the Tawatinâ Bridge over the North Saskatchewan.
- Magazine
- Edify
- Issue
- January / February 2026
- Ran as
- The contents page, and the feature across two spreads
- Words
- Breanna Mroczek
- Art direction
- Kim Larson
- Photographs
- Ryan Parker
As printed
The cover, and the pages.
01Edify, January / February 2026
The frames
The photographs, before the type.
01The photographs
How it got made
The brief, the room, the frame.
Kim wanted a prairie feel, Ukrainian dancers in Canada’s prairies, and she picked the Tawatinâ Bridge. Kostiya danced in the middle of it, with Darka, who I go way back with, translating. I scouted the morning before and liked facing south into the hard sun, where it bounces off the water and gives more detail at the top of the frame. The day itself was so much fun, and so cold my hands could barely press the shutter.
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