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.
BORN IN VANCOUVER, British Columbia, in 1938, Vivian Briggs Love studied ballet at the Wynne Shaw Dance Studio in Victoria from 1943-1957 and has been an important part of Victoria’s dance community ever since. Amongst her many achievements, Love was the two-time winner of the June Roper Trophy at the British Columbia Dance Festival in 1955 and 1956, she opened her own dance studio — the Vivian M. Briggs School of Dance — in 1958, and since her retirement, has worked on many dance-related projects in Victoria. Love was also one of the founders of the South Vancouver Island Dance Archives. ~ excerpt from Dancing on the lsland.
Scroll down and click on the PDF below to read the full Vivian Briggs Love chapter from Dancing on the Island.
Vivian Briggs Love, 1958
Painting of Vivian Briggs Love as a teenager