Shona Dunlop MacTavish
Mother of New Zealand Modern Dance
“Reach beyond yourself, and the movement will take a life of its own, you are a bead in the necklace of life, string it well, and sparkle when the sun shines.”
Dr Shona Dunlop MacTavish (MBE)
About Shona
Dr Shona Dunlop MacTavish MBE, born in Dunedin in 1920, lived through tumultuous times in far-flung lands, to be 99, dancing and sharing her passion for dance. In the 1930s she studied dance in Paris and Vienna, helping her celebrated teacher Gertud Bodenwieser to escape the Nazis, touring South America, then settling in Sydney, Australia as Bodenwieser’s assistant and Principal Dancer.
In 1948, after a whirlwind courtship, she married Canadian Presbyterian missionary Donald MacTavish and sailed for China with him. Expelled from Peking in 1949, the young couple were redeployed by the Church of Scotland to the Mission School of Lovedale in South Africa, where they fought against apartheid while Shona continued to teach dance and explore the connection between religion and art.
After Donald’s death, Shona returned to Dunedin in 1957 with three small children, and established the first modern dance studio in New Zealand, going on to set up the Dunedin Dance Theatre. She was a social pioneer, a loving mother and wife, and an inspiration to many people throughout her lifetime, widely considered to be the Mother of New Zealand Modern Dance.
‘Out into the Blue’
The Story of Shona MacTavish’s Life
Two films have been made of Shona’s life. This is the first, directed by Halina Oganowska-Coates, produced by Zoe Gillian Fraser and Bronwyn Tilly Judge. Archival footage is linked by ‘My End is the Beginning’, choreographed by Shona, with Bronwyn dancing to music commissioned from Anthony Ritchie.
“In the course of the dance, she learns to accept whatever life has to offer in the belief that beneath all grief the fundamental realities are joy…The climax of the film is when the dancer scales and appears on the top of a cliff to open her arms wide towards the great blue sky above. What an affirmation of the richness of life!”
Leap of Faith p234
(A second film, ‘Wind Dancer’, was directed by Wiebke Hendry in 2007.)