Shirley Main and Her Gift to Dance in Greater Victoria

By Stephen White

That Shirley Main was a remarkable human being is without question. In her very full life, Shirley received accolades and honours and acquitted herself of extraordinary opportunities that came her way through hard work and total commitment with grace and humility. And while her natural leadership qualities were widely acknowledged, perhaps what has never been fully recognized is the oversized contribution Shirley made to the development of a dance culture in our region both directly and indirectly. She set things in motion that would take on a life of their own.

Early Life

Born Shirley Elizabeth Roberts (Calgary, 1932) to parents Lillian and Burt, she was raised in Saskatoon where she established herself as a star athlete at a young age. Shirley was a member of the provincial track team, played tennis, basketball and was a competitive swimmer. She was one of only two teenaged girls to be members of a women’s softball team.

In her youth, Shirley spent summers in Victoria at her grandparent’s home on Dalhousie Street near Willows Beach. It was here when she was 14 or 15 years old that she met her future husband, Gerry Main. Like Shirley, Gerry was a dedicated athlete. He captained many teams, played hockey and soccer, but his passion was rugby, eventually playing at the Canadian National Team level. At university, Gerry would be President of the UBC Athletic Association.

It wasn’t until she attended the University of Toronto in its inaugural Physical Education program for Women (Class of 1954) that she discovered her love of dance. Here her training focused on the emergent jazz and modern dance syllabi.

After graduating from U of T, Shirley married Gerry and eventually the couple made their way to Victoria via Vancouver with their one-year-old daughter Marsha in tow. In the next couple of years, sons Ross and Grant were added to the family.

Early Years at the Y

Today, the Vancouver Island YMCA-YWCA vision statement is: “Healthy people building strong communities.” Bob Wallace was a member, and eventually President of the Vancouver Island YMCA-YWCA Board of Directors during some of Shirley’s tenure and he remembers her as a person that not only “talked the talk but walked the walk.”

Bob joined the Y Board of Directors in 1976, serving as its President from 1978 to 1981. During that time, he got to know Shirley well. He recalls her as being “a quiet, gentle spirit. My first and constant thoughts about her are that she devoted herself to assist people in finding their best selves in health (mentally and physically).”

The Young Men’s Christian Association was founded in London in 1844 with the aim to put Christian values into practice by developing “healthy body, mind and spirit.” In its first century, the Y leaned heavily into preaching and the distribution of religious tracts and concerned itself with saving young men from the temptations of alcohol, gambling, and prostitution. But after World War II, at least in North America, the Y moved away from preaching and over time, embraced new values like diversity, gender equality, and equal opportunity. It focused resources on outreach, child development, and programs to support families. Each Y became more responsive to specific needs in their local communities. An emphasis on healthy mind, body, and spirit are still the core values of the organization, but there has been a definite shift away from proselytizing.

Shirley had worked part-time as a fitness instructor at the YWCA when she and Gerry lived in Vancouver in the mid-1950s but in Victoria, she would take up a full-time position in 1961. Originally, she taught swimming lessons (on top of everything else, she was a certified lifeguard) but over the next few years, as the YMCA and YWCA moved toward amalgamation on Vancouver Island, Shirley would land a new job developing adult programs. [Incidentally, it was Shirley that led a petition to ensure pay equity was enshrined in the new amalgamation agreement].

In her time at the Y, Shirley developed a fitness instructor training course that was adopted by Fitness Canada. In 1971 she was seconded by the federal government to consult on the creation of Canada’s ParticipACTION program and was instrumental in its implementation. In 1980 she recorded a dance fitness album set to music composed by Vancouver-based musician Bill Sample called The Joy of Fitness. In 1984, with co-authors Richelle Bradshaw and Gordon W Stewart, Shirley collaborated on Fit All Over: A Catalogue of Exercises.

In 1995 Shirley was invested as an Officer in the Y Fellowship by then Governor General Romeo LeBlanc, recognizing her contributions to community both regionally and nationally. In 2000 she was honored with the Vancouver Island Y’s Woman of Distinction Award. Shirley Main fully embodied the altruistic vision and spirit of the Y in her 34 years of service to the organization (1961- 1995).

Jacqueline Cecil-Sears

Early in her tenure at the Y, Shirley would employ dance instructor Jacqueline Cecil-Sears, and strike up a friendship that would endure for the rest of her life. Jacqueline established herself as a popular instructor of both creative dance for small children, and ballet and jazz for adults.

Local dancer, choreographer and instructor Alison Windecker has vivid memories of Jacqueline as a neighbour, teacher (mentor) and (in time) a close friend, despite their 23-year gap in age. Alison would eventually act as Jacqueline’s executor after she passed away in 2010.

Alison suggests that Shirley, “…recognized Jacqueline’s skill, experience, and professionalism early on…”

Born in 1930, Jacqueline grew up in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania where, as a child, she studied dance and performing arts at her aunt’s school, before attending the School of American Ballet in New York. After graduation, Jacqueline gained employment as a Rockette at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and (with her future husband Michael Sears) became a founding member of the Joffrey Ballet. She took to teaching dance in New York and eventually she and Michael found employment in a number of US cities landing for some time in Salt Lake City where Jaqueline trained with Virginia Tanner, a renowned pioneer of creative dance for children.

In 1957, she and Michael married and a few years later, on an excursion to Alaska, they took a side trip to Vancouver Island, visiting Gabriola Island where, on impulse, they purchased a small farm on North Road. In 1962 they moved to Gabriola and Jacqueline came into Alison’s life. Alison recalls, “I was about nine years old when she and her husband bought the property on Gabriola, adjacent to the farm where I grew up. Jacqueline rented the old schoolhouse building on the island and at first, every girl and boy in my elementary school signed up for her ballet classes.  Only a few of us continued after the first year or two and soon she was renting the Eagles Hall in Nanaimo and attracting a bigger clientele.  I remember her walking on and off the ferry carrying a huge, heavy reel-to-reel tape player which she believed had superior sound to cassette tapes…”

Jacqueline was also commuting to Victoria to offer classes for children and adults at the Y. It was there that Carl Hare, then Chair of the University of Victoria’s theatre department, first encountered Jacqueline in 1966. His four-year old daughter was enrolled in her creative dance class. Carl says, “She was a wonderful teacher, both inventive and disciplined.” In fact, he was so impressed with her abilities that he invited her to join his nascent professional theatre troupe, Company One which he founded in 1970. Alison assumed the leadership of Jacqueline’s Nanaimo school when she turned her attention to acting. Later, when Carl returned to his native Alberta and was appointed Chair of the Theatre Department at the University of Alberta, he brought Jacqueline to Edmonton to teach movement, but she longed to be home on her small Gabriola Island farm so after two years, she returned to the coast.

Victoria based actor, writer, director and founder of The Story Theatre Company, Jim Leard was also a member of Company One and remembers Jacqueline as, “the kindest dance teacher for a bunch of us clods …” Jim recalls her combining yoga and dance “nicely”. “No one ever had a bad word to say about Jacqueline.” Carl concurs saying, “… she was one of the finest persons I had the honour to know and work with.  As gentle as she was, she still had the discipline and imagination of an artist as well as [a concern for] others.” Alison recalls, “As a teacher [Jacqueline] was kind, patient and encouraging but always expected a high standard.”

It is likely that Shirley not only appreciated Jacqueline’s skills as an instructor but also admired her experience dancing professionally in New York. There is no question that Jacqueline was a resource and inspiration for Shirley as she developed her dance program at the Y. Shirley’s children, Marsha and Grant remember Jacqueline as a valued colleague and true friend to their mother.

Shirley’s Contribution to the Dance Ecology

It was in her role as Director of Adult Programs, that Shirley began building a dance program that at its peak in the late 1970’s/early 1980s offered 42 different classes each week. Originally most classes were taught in the auditorium at the Y’s downtown location but in the mid 1970s, at Shirley’s request (and gentle persuasion), the Y renovated an existing activity room adding a sprung floor, ballet barres on two walls and mirrors on the third: she now had a professional-calibre dance studio.

Shirley was always interested in fitness, discovering early on that adding music and dance to a conditioning class made it more fun for participants. She was ahead of her time. In her classes she pioneered a style of dance fitness she called Dancetera, that combined ballet with a little Latin, jazz, and contemporary dance, making for very dynamic sessions designed to keep the joints limber and the heart pumping.

In 1968 a California dance instructor (Judi Sheppard-Missett) would create Jazzercise incorporating many of the same ideas that Shirley had integrated into her teaching a few years prior, but there was an important difference. Jazzercise was big business. Sheppard-Missett created strict lesson plans paired with specific recorded music that “certified” Jazzercize practitioners used in their classes. Shirley’s approach was not formulaic. She created unique choreography that was responsive to the participants’ ability in each class she taught.

Shirley’s daughter, Marsha Main Pimlott, who followed her mother into the profession both teaching dance and dance fitness classes says, “Shirley always had a love of music and a true appreciation of the arts…I think she saw how these could be combined and used as motivation for people to get moving and enjoy it. Definitely the fitness and health component were the impetus at the start, but it became a happy marriage of fitness, movement, music and all the artistic qualities of dance that became a very creative outlet for her.” In other words, she discovered the art through fitness and found a creative outlet in designing each class.

In her book Small City, Big Talent, author Robin J. Miller tells of a moment in the late 1970s when Shirley happened upon a martial arts class led by Constantine Darling, a recent emigree to Victoria from New York and Montreal. She immediately engaged him to teach dance. Shortly afterwards, Constantine’s friend and fellow dancer, Lynda Raino arrived in town. On Constantine’s advice Lynda contacted Shirley and was soon teaching classes at the Y.

“When I met Shirley, I immediately noticed the sparkle in her eyes.  She was an energetic woman and her delight in life was totally infectious.  She had an enormous calendar in her office that took up one entire wall. This was how she shuffled all the classes she was co-ordinating.  I loved it. Many coloured sticky notes with each dance style a different colour.  Many erased entries. (We used White Out at that time). It was a chaotic mess, but totally worked.  And Shirley just laughed at the chaos of it,” recalls Lynda.

Shirley hired Lynda to teach her “Modern Blues” class based on Constantine’s recommendation; no demo required. She would pop by Lynda’s class from time to time with nothing but praise and encouragement. She was delighted that in a short period of time Lynda’s classes had become very popular. Soon Lynda was teaching a second modern dance class, and a third shortly after that focused on dance fitness. “She was totally open to anything I wanted to try. I loved her for that. She made me feel valued and important,” says Lynda.

It was an exciting time for dance in Victoria. Lynda and Constantine brought a new energy and big-city sophistication to local dance training. Shirley’s daughter Marsha Main Pimlott studied ballet with Wynn Shaw in her youth, but soon after Lynda and Constantine started teaching at the Y, she enrolled in their classes. “Their impact made for exciting times for me personally and in my dance growth as well as the dance community as a whole. They brought such newness and creativity to the scene,” recalls Marsha.

Although Lynda would leave the Y after only a year to teach at Spectrum Dance Circus (a studio that she and Constantine established) Constantine would continue teaching at the Y for a few more years. He was loyal to Shirley because she had been so supportive of him when he first arrived in town.

“When I had enough students who would follow me, I left the Y to start my own classes with Constantine…She was sad to see me go, and I recall feeling bad that I was leaving. But the pay was not enough to live on, and she totally understood that.” says Lynda.

Local studio owner Sherry Black taught Beginner Adult Tap at the Y over a fifteen-year period in the 1970s and 80s. She recalls that, “At the time there was a prolific Adult Y community whereby students could take ballet, modern, jazz, dance fit, and tap.”

Sherry, whose early training was with Florence Clough (and later with Wynn Shaw), was invited at age 16 to be part of Jerry Gosley’s (legendary) Smile Show where she first encountered the show’s choreographer Bebe Eversfield. Bebe gave Sherry her own “tap studio” within her School of Theatrical Arts. Over the years, Sherry’s studio emerged to be independent of Bebe’s. At the Y, as students in Sherry’s Adult Tap classes progressed, they would shift into more advanced classes at her studio.

“Shirley was extremely supportive. She enjoyed observing quite frequently…promoting [my] class within her class and the other Adult Y dance classes,” recalls Sherry.  She “…was loved by all…an enthusiastic role model.”

Janice Tooby-MacDonald, who would open her own dance studio in Victoria in 1973, took jazz with Marsha and would later get to know Shirley through Marsha’s two daughters who were enrolled at Janice’s studio. “…Shirley was their very supportive grandmother who always attended any watching day, demonstration, or performance the girls were involved in. Shirley was a wonderful and kind lady.”

In 1976, after graduating from York University with a BFA in dance, Alison Windecker started teaching modern dance at the Y, for the first-time introducing Graham technique to Victoria dancers. She would continue teaching at the Y (with a short interlude in the early 1980s) into the 1990s, while also offering classes at a variety of local studios and the University of Victoria.

Kim Breiland, founder, and principal at Stages Dance, was also at the Y in the early 1980s. She worked as Constantine’s assistant, demonstrating for the classes he taught. Although she did not take any of Shirley’s own classes nor was she in her direct employ, she remembers Shirley as a mentor. “As a young dancer her encouragement and kind words gave me strength and direction to persevere,” says Kim.

In the years after her time working with Constantine at the Y, Kim, Marsha, (and Alison) danced together at Spectrum. Kim says, “Although I lost touch with them [later in life] any time I ran into Shirley, she would always give me a hug and ask how I was doing… I’ve always had the utmost respect and admiration for both Shirley and Marsha.  True gifts to our community.”

In addition to Kim, Marsha, Sherry, Alison, Lynda, and Constantine, other dance artists and teachers would pass through the Y during Shirley’s tenure. These included Janice Tooby-MacDonald (mentioned above), Gina Purves-Hume who taught modern dance at the Y and studios around town, respected local ballet teacher, Wendy Steen Thomas Mitchell, and Richelle Bradshaw, who collaborated with Shirley on the Fit All Over fitness catalogue.

Shirley not only gave licence to talented instructors, she inspired many through the four classes that she taught each week. A former student, Mickey Pite says, “…my time with Shirley was very brief… However, I can tell you that she was absolutely lovely, very inspirational, and admired by everyone I ever danced with back then… She was one of my very first dance teachers as an adult, and she wouldn’t have known how she instilled in me my love of jazz dance to this very day. It wasn’t long after my time with her that I think she retired, and the next thing I knew I was taking classes with her daughter, Marsha, again at the Y. And then I think it was on to Constantine Darling not long after that for even more jazz. All I remember really is that she was very highly respected, very personable, a beautiful woman, and that it was a very sad day when I heard of her passing.”

Betty Molnar was devoted to Shirley as a teacher, eventually becoming a close friend. She remembers Shirley as a “beautiful mover.” “I was already in the Y taking dance classes – Marsha’s jazz, Gina’s contemporary, Linda’s modern, Connie’s contemporary – [but] the word in the Y was about this great dance-based fitness class in the gym with Shirley Main, coming from other dancers always with “you should try it”. [I] tried it along with all the rest [of the classes] I was taking and fell in love with both the class and Shirley’s teaching style.”

In her description of Shirley’s Dancetera class Betty says, “…there was no barre work, but it was always a dance based warmup with new music and new choreography each session (which was then eight weeks) …she would gently correct unless she realized that a person was doing their best with what they had …her class appealed to a broad range of abilities…[Each class included] a cool down stretch sequence on the floor…the class was broken down into three parts, twenty minutes of warmup dance-based exercises, twenty minutes of choreographed dances and then cool down. [When the class] was moved into what is the “Shirley Main Studio” there were the barres, so a mid-portion of the class was barre work.” Betty remembers Shirley’s classes as always being at capacity. She was a very popular teacher.

In Conclusion

“Shirley was tireless in pursuing talent where she saw it, in order to encourage and promote dance in every way she could,” says Alison Windecker.

Without the opportunity that Shirley provided to local dance artists it’s likely some of them would have found a way to establish themselves in Victoria, but most would have struggled to find their “audience,” or clientele. A few might have given up the struggle. What Shirley created was a fulcrum: an open and welcoming environment that was a nexus connecting eager participants with talented instructors. Dance training in Victoria took a new direction in the early 1980s and while Lynda, Constantine, Kim, Marsha, Alison, Sherry, Janice, and others have been credited with contributing to this new dynamic, Shirley was the silent partner, the steady hand on the tiller that propelled the change. She had an eye for talent, and she used the opportunity the Y provided to support its development.

Marsha has herself been teaching for 50 years at the Y (she started when she was sixteen). She has embraced her mother’s love of dance fitness and has developed her own signature approach she calls Dance Fusion and, in fact, her work in this field led to her inclusion in the popular 1980s CHEK TV fitness program, Body Moves. When asked what she learned from Shirley, Marsha says, “I would say her innate character drove her every day. She did not give up on anything and was driven to succeed in all her endeavours. This came with a thoughtfulness and caring for others ….and a healthy dose of humility.”

Shirley’s son Grant Main, himself an Olympic Gold Medallist (men’s rowing, 1984) recently recalled an anecdote that spoke to Shirley’s work ethic combined with her appreciation of beauty. When she was in her twenties between school terms at U of T, Shirley worked at the Jasper Park Lodge. Years ago, as the family drove through Jasper on a return trip to Victoria from Calgary, Shirley pointed to almost every peak in the region noting that she (as a young woman in the 1950s) had climbed each of them on her days off from the Lodge.

“As I look back, three qualities stand out for me that I learned from: [Shirley’s] approach to teaching …her leadership skills and the personal connection with the participants … But most importantly, and the basis for it all, was [her conveyance] and sharing of the absolute and boundless joy of dancing at any level of expertise!” says Marsha.