Founder

A Note from our Founder, Beth Shumway

I founded and directed for almost 25 years a non-profit performing modern dance company, Prairie Dance Theatre. We were a small group, ranging from 4 to 8 dancers most of the time, and we toured a 10-state region performing concerts and children’s shows – probably literally thousands of shows over the years. Although we had many fine guest choreographers and works choreographed by company members, the majority of our work over the years was my own original work, and the majority of my work was environmental, ecological, And Native American-inspired and influenced. With my dancers, we developed our own eclectic modern dance idiom, even to the point of stylizing traditional Native dance steps and patterns such as two-step, round dance, fancy dance, etc. Our most popular works were the children’s shows – which we Often performed 2 or 3 times a day in various locations. All the children’s shows my husband and I developed based on treatments by Dr. Howard Meredith (Cherokee) were designed to teach children about different American Indian tribes – some of the customs and stories of each one. We developed a “medicine wheel” of 4 shows, one for each cardinal direction, which we called “Dancing the Dreamways.” (Cherokee, Navajo, Lakota, and AkoKisa, a tribe which has been acculturated) Each lasted about an hour and involved narration as well as telling a story through dance. As often as possible we had original music composed for us by local composers. My husband, Peter, created most of our minimal sets and was technical and lighting director for us as we toured, as well as being a character and narrator and collaborating on our children’s shows.

We performed as far north as Wyoming and as far south as south Texas, west as far as Arizona and east in Louisiana. We also performed twice in Cambridge, Massachusetts – once for the Cambridge River Festival – and twice at the Houston International Festival. We were honored to have performed our children’s shows for children from 3 Indian Nations – Navajo at Pine Hill and Gallup, Lakota at Pine Ridge, and for Cherokee children here at home and in Tahlequah. We also taught master classes in creative movement for elementary age children and later taught master classes in modern dance for communities, schools and colleges where we performed. The number of our performances probably ran into the thousands, and the communities visited into the hundreds.

My husband and I also carried the burden of the organizational operation of the company for those 25 years – everything from fund raising and grant writing to booking performances and doing public relations, doing payroll, etc.

Although I was beginning to tire of the organizational responsibilities of the company, retiring was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. But we felt that if the company was to continue without me, I would have to leave entirely for a couple of years. I am now back simply as a volunteer and Board member, having waited the two years. Prairie Dance Theatre is now changed into strictly a teaching organization, focusing on offering dance classes to underserved children in our area. The curriculum includes other arts experiences as well such as journaling and visual art as the children create their own performances each session.

During the time we ran PDT and just before, I was one of the first two people hired by the Oklahoma State Department of Education and then by the Oklahoma Arts Council to be a “Movement Specialist” (i.e., dancer) in the schools – which I continued to do until my duties with PDT made it impossible. I have done residencies in many Oklahoma communities.

I also taught part-time at Cassady School, Heritage Hall School, and as an Artist-in-Residence at University of Central Oklahoma – then Central State University– in Edmond.

I also co-choreographed (with one of the other founders of PDT) The Trail of Tears in Tahlequah, OK – for 3 seasons around 1980, I believe. (This was the old Paul Green version of the show. We also did one about Will Rogers called The Cherokee Kid.)

From 1970-76, I taught modern dance at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a 4-year, coeducational college in the Maryland state system. I also performed professionally with the Louis Tupler Dance Company of Washington, D.C.

I received an MA in Theatre from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. (1973)

I received my BA in English from Smith College in Northampton, MA, in 1968, where I was an Honorary Prize Scholar/Early Acceptance and a member of the Alpha Society for Creative Achievement.

I graduated from Summa Cum Laude from Cassady School here in OKC in 1964, having been given various departmental awards and being a National Merit Semifinalist

I also attended Brandeis University in acting (1969-70), Radcliffe College in Publishing Procedures (1968), and the University de Poitiers at La Rochelle, France (1964)

I acted professionally at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1970, and on film in Washington, D. C.

My recent dance studies have mainly been at pow-wows and other ceremonials at which it is allowed. In the distant past, I studied with Rosalind de Mille, Chifra Holt, and Deborah Zall at Smith College. I studied 2 summers with Murray Louis and also with the Jose Limon Company (Carla Maxwell and Jennifer Scanlon mainly) as well as various shorter workshops with other dancers and dance companies in the 1970’s.

Since most of my mentors are gone and many of my contemporaries retired, I am in the strange position of giving you the names of some of my students and former company members for recommendations, if you need them – along with friends and contemporaries:

*Cynthia Bond Perry (former student and company member, now teaching at the University of Oklahoma). *Tonya Freeman Kilburn (former company member and current director of Prairie Dance Theatre) *Ann Shanks (former director of the dance program at the University of Central Oklahoma) Also American Indian “buddies” who honored me on PDT’s 20^th anniversary – *Ben Harjo and *Richard Aitson – and my main collaborator, *Joe Medrano. *Mary Ellen Meredith, Cherokee, and *John Parrish, Chickasaw, and I all grew up together.