In early 2016, by way of a Victoria Foundation grant, Dance Victoria hired University of Victoria MA candidate, Elizabeth Bassett, to work on the South Vancouver Island Dance Archives (SVIDA) collection alongside the existing volunteer Archives Committee at Dance Victoria. Her primary focus was to interview several key women in South Vancouver Island’s dance history to make sure we preserved their stories. The interviews and Elizabeth’s writings were so impressive that Dance Victoria published a limited edition book, Dancing on the Island – Six Women Who Shaped Dance on South Vancouver Island, Canada. All chapters are available in this Community Dance Archives by clicking the ”related links” above.
DOROTHY WILSON (1893-1992) was one of the first dance teachers in Victoria, British Columbia, where she taught from 1922-1939. Even though she was forbidden to dance as a child, Wilson nonetheless became an accomplished teacher and one of the “forgotten pioneer women of dance” in Canada, to borrow an apt term from Vancouver Island historian Maureen Duffus. Wilson had many successes in her dance career: from teaching students who would later join professional dance companies, to staging the first production of Coppélia in North America, to choreographing for the Stanley Park Theatre Under the Stars. In addition, Wilson left an amazing legacy of dance behind her in Victoria. She was recognized for all her impressive accomplishments in 1986, when she was inducted into the Canadian Dance Hall of Fame.
Dorothy Wilson Forster c1913
Wilson’s Russian Ballet School of Dancing in front of Victoria’s Royal Theatre. Photo: Carey & McAllister (Victoria, Canada: c. 1933)
Dorothy Wilson’s 1936 production of Coppélia, staged at Victoria’s Royal Theatre. Left to right: Jo Wilson, Honor Benson, Doreen Wilson, Dolly Bradshaw, Wynne Shaw, and Isabel Benson. Photo by Carey & McAllister (Victoria, Canada: 1936).
https://archives.dancevictoria.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/dv-archives-dorothy-wilson-russian-ballet-school-ad-a.pdf
- Date of Submission: 2021-07-09
- Updated: 2022-02-04
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