Vera L Zaputowycz

The Ukrainian community and surviving family, mourn the loss of Vera Leonida Zaputowycz (Zaputovich), widely known professional ballerina, teacher of Ukrainian dance and choreographer, of the early and mid 1950’s in Edmonton, Canada. At the age of 97, she passed away peacefully at her home, early Saturday morning, February 5, 2022. Born in Lwiw, Western Ukraine as Vera Leonida Shyshko, on September 14, 1924, as a young woman, she was deported and persecuted by the Nazis, performing forced hard labor in a concentration camp in Germany. At the end of WWII, on liberation, She completed professional ballet training in Vienna, Austria and appeared in solo performances on many theater stages of Austria and Germany (stage name: Vera Osovska nee Myshyn). In 1951, she immigrated to Edmonton, Canada, met and married her late husband Roman Z. Zaputowycz, student of electrical engineering at the University of Alberta. In succeeding years, she organized two separate Ukrainian Folk Dance schools associated with the Ukrainian Catholic Church and St. John’s Ukrainian Orthodox School of Dancing. The Alberta Arts Commission quickly took notice of the schools’ numerous top finishes in Folk Dancing competitions, with the Ministry of Culture in Ottowa eventually declaring that both schools were “professional” and only could compete on a national level. Under her tutelage, from 1953-56 as Director/Choreographer, the school achieved many awards, both nationally and internationally. She also performed publicly as a female professional Ukrainian Folk dancer alongside world-renowned Ukrainian Balletmaster Vasile Avramenko. In 1956, deciding on having a family over a career, directorship of the school was assumed by Chester Myroslav Kuc, a previous pupil of Balletmaster Vasile Avramenko, who later created in 1959, the famous SHUMKA Dance Group of Edmonton, Canada, that is in existence to this day. Many of the first generation SHUMKA dancers were former pupils of Vera Zaputowycz (Zaputovich) of St John’s Orthodox School of Dancing. One of her pupils, Orest Semchuck, was subsequently accepted to the British National Ballet in London, UK. In time, she traveled to the United States, gaining US citizenship, focusing on family life and her two children, Oleh and Ariadna, and never appeared on stage again. Contributions in Vera's memory to Revived Soldier's Ukraine at www.rsukraine.org would be appreciated.