Wynne Shaw profile

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.

WYNNE SHAW GREW UP IN VICTORIA, British Columbia, where she established a four-decades-long career as a dance teacher. While she was inclined to dance since early childhood, Shaw only began her formal dance training with Dorothy Wilson when she was 18 years old. Although she was primarily a tap dancer, Shaw also trained in ballet. In 1936, she had a role in the first North American production of Coppélia. Recognizing that she had begun training too late to become a professional dancer, Shaw chose to focus on developing her teaching skills at Wilson’s school. In 1941 she opened her own school, the Wynne Shaw Dance Studio, where she taught hundreds of dance students until her retirement in 1983. ~excerpt from Dancing on the Island

Scroll down and click on the PDF below to read the full Wynne Shaw chapter from Dancing on the Island.