Shona Dunlop MacTavish

Shona Katrine Dunlop was born in Dunedin on 12 April 1920;{{Cite news |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/392447/shona-dunlop-mactavish-dunedin-dance-pioneer-dies-aged-99 |title=Shona Dunlop MacTavish, Dunedin dance pioneer, dies aged 99 |date=19 June 2019 |work=RNZ News |access-date=19 June 2019}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search/search?path=%2FqueryEntry.m%3Ftype%3Ddeaths |title=Death search: registration number 2019/17219 |website=Births, deaths & marriages online |publisher=Department of Internal Affairs |access-date=27 June 2019}}{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19200420.2.117 |title=Births |date=20 April 1920 |work=Otago Witness |page=37 |access-date=26 June 2019}} her father was Francis Dunlop, a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister who lectured in moral philosophy at the University of Otago,{{Cite web |url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/philosophy/dept/history.html |title=Philosophical history |first=Charles |last=Pigden |publisher=University of Otago|access-date=19 June 2019}} and her brother was Bonar Dunlop who became a noted sculptor.{{cite news |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/language-dance |title=Language of dance |first=Charmian |last=Smith |date=21 February 2009 |work=Otago Daily Times |access-date=20 June 2019}}

In 1935, she and her family travelled to Europe, and she enrolled to study with expressionist dancer and choreographer Gertrud Bodenwieser at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. She studied there for two years and then joined as a principal dancer. Bodenwieser and many of her dancers were Jewish and in 1938, when the Nazis invaded Austria, the ballet was forced to leave Europe. The company toured South America then based themselves in Sydney, Australia, and toured New Zealand during the late 1940s. Dunlop continued to dance with the Bodenwieser Ballet and also taught ballet in local Sydney schools, including Abottsleigh Girls' School.{{Cite web |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-676078 |title=Chapple, Margaret (1923–1996) |website=Trove |access-date=19 June 2019}}

In 1948, Dunlop met Scottish Free Church minister MacDonald MacTavish in Sydney, and married him less than three weeks later at St Stephen's Presbyterian Church in central Sydney.{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/228801772 |title=Leaves stage for China mission |date=13 June 1948 |work=The Sun |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=3}} MacTavish, a Canadian and cousin of Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King, was on his way to China to take up a position as a missionary in Yichang and Dunlop resigned her position as a dancer to go with him.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83759001 |title=Dancer to be missionary |date=14 June 1948 |work=Daily News |access-date=18 February 2016|page=1}} The couple left Sydney in July 1948 for Beijing where they spent three months learning Mandarin and waiting for government permission to move to Manchuria. While they were in Beijing, fighting broke out between Communist and Nationalist forces and the MacTavishs evacuated to Taiwan. They were invited to work at the English Presbyterian Church Mission in Tainan; Dunlop MacTavish taught not only English, but also ballet for the local children.{{Cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46455589 |title=Missionary's wife ran a dance class |date=20 May 1950 |work=Australian Women's Weekly |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=35}} In 1957, her husband died while they were serving as missionaries in South Africa and she returned to Dunedin as a solo mother with three young children.

Initially, Dunlop MacTavish taught dance at Dunedin's Columba College and in 1958, she opened her own studio – New Zealand's first modern dance studio. By 1963, she had set up a performing group, Dunedin Dance Theatre.{{cite web |url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/42584/shona-dunlop-mactavish |first=Marianne |last=Schultz |title=Contemporary dance – New Zealand practitioners, mid-20th century |website=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |year=2014 |access-date=30 January 2016}}

Dunlop MacTavish's fascination with the diverse range of dance forms she had observed while living and touring abroad, combined with her own strong Christian faith, led her to explore the practice of liturgical dance - the use of dance as an expression of religious belief. During the 1960s and 1970s, she developed and delivered workshops and lectures on liturgical dance throughout the Asia-Pacific region, such as the East Asian Christian Council of Youth Conference, the Federation of Theological Colleges of South East Asia and the World Council of Churches. For many of these projects she choreographed ballet and dance performances for and with the participants and congregations.

In the 1970s, Dunlop MacTavish moved to the Philippines and took a position as professor of dance at Silliman University. While there, she conducted research into the dance traditions of the indigenous people of the Philippines. She observed and documented dances performed to mark courtship and marriage, and to celebrate harvests and births and hypothesised that all indigenous dance stems from religious beliefs.{{Cite journal| last=Marshall |first=Jonathon W. |date=December 2012 |title=Ausdruckstanz, faith, and the anthropological impulse in Europe and the Asia-Pacific: a critical analysis of the career of Shona Dunlop MacTavish |url=https://www.academia.edu/2445639/Ausdruckstanz_Faith_and_the_Anthropological_Impulse_in_Europe_and_the_Asia-Pacific_A_Critical_Analysis_of_the_Career_of_Shona_Dunlop_MacTavish |journal=Brolga: An Australian Journal About Dance |issue=37 }}

Dunlop MacTavish also worked as a choreographer in New Zealand. Her first work for the Royal New Zealand Ballet was a reconstruction of her Pania of the Reef in 1970. For this production, she sourced a Māori vocalist and borrowed traditional clothing from a museum. In 1998 she choreographed the opera Outrageous Fortune.{{Cite web |url=https://ausdance.org.au/contributors/details/motohide-miyahara |title=Motohide Miyahara |website=Ausdance |access-date=19 June 2019}}

In the 1985 New Year Honours, Dunlop MacTavish was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the arts.{{London Gazette |issue=49970 |date=31 December 1984 |page=2 |supp=2}} In 2001, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature degree by the University of Otago.{{cite book |title=University of Otago Calendar |url=http://www.otago.ac.nz/study/otago362021.pdf |publisher=University of Otago |access-date=18 February 2016 | year=2016 | chapter=Honorary graduates | page=142}} In 2017, she was made an honorary member of Dance Aotearoa New Zealand.{{Cite web |url=http://danz.org.nz/mactavish%20honorary%20member |title=The Grand Dame of dance in Aotearoa to be made an honorary DANZ member |publisher=DANZ|language=en-NZ|access-date=19 June 2019}}

Dunlop MacTavish suffered serious injury in a crash in 2012, but continued to teach dance after her recovery.{{cite news|last=Porteous |first=Debbie |title=Older drivers in rear-view mirror |url=http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/305793/older-drivers-rear-view-mirror |access-date=3 February 2016 |work=Otago Daily Times |date=14 Jun 2014}} She died in Dunedin on 18 June 2019 at the age of 99,{{cite news |last=Edwards |first=Jono |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dunedins-doyenne-dance-dies |title=Dunedin's doyenne of dance dies |work=Otago Daily Times |date=19 June 2019 |access-date=19 June 2019}}{{cite news |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/nz-mother-modern-dance-dies |title=NZ 'mother of modern dance' dies |date=20 June 2019 |work=Otago Daily Times |access-date=20 June 2019 |first=John |last=Lewis}} and her funeral at Knox Church, Dunedin included dancers escorting her casket and improvised dance by members of the congregation.{{cite news |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/time-dance-time-mourn |title=A time to dance, a time to mourn ... |date=26 June 2019 |work=Otago Daily Times |first=Mike |last=Houlahan |access-date=26 June 2019}} She was survived by her long time artistic collaborator and friend, Louise and her three children.

Her son, Dugald MacTavish, a geohydrologist, was awarded the Queen's Service Medal, for services to conservation and the environment, in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.{{cite news |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/people-good-nothing |title=People: 'Good for Nothing' |date=2 May 2012 |work=Otago Daily Times |access-date=23 August 2019}}{{cite news |url=https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/community/queens-birthday-honours-2019-waitaki-recipients/ |title=Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019 – Waitaki recipients |work=Oamaru Mail |date=7 June 2019 |first=Hamish |last=MacLean |access-date=23 August 2019}} Her daughter, Terry MacTavish, was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to theatre and education, in the 2019 New Year Honours.{{cite web | url=https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-2019 | title=New Year honours list 2019 |date=31 December 2018 | publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet | access-date=20 June 2019}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/bio.php?id=16 |title=Terry MacTavish |website=Theatreview |access-date=20 June 2019}} Dunlop MacTavish's granddaughter, Jinty MacTavish, was elected to the Dunedin City Council in 2010 as a 25-year-old, the second-youngest person ever elected as a Dunedin councillor.{{cite news |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/age-no-barrier-youngest-councillor-says |title=Age no barrier, youngest councillor says |first=Bruce |last=Munro |date=16 October 2010 |work=Otago Daily Times |access-date=21 June 2019}}

• Dunlop MacTavish, Shona: An Ecstasy of Purpose. The Life and Art of Gertrud Bodenwieser. Dunedin, 1987.{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/15650194|title=An ecstasy of purpose : the life and art of Gertrud Bodenwieser|last=MacTavish|first=Shona Dunlop|date=1987|location=Dunedin |publisher=S.D. MacTavish, Les Humphrey and Associates|isbn=9780473004941}}
• Dunlop MacTavish, Shona: Gertrud Bodenwieser. Tänzerin, Choreographin, Pädagogin. Wien – Sydney. (Gekürzte Ausgabe, aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Gabriele Haefs, hrsg.v. Denny Hirschbach). Zeichen und Spuren, Bremen 1992. {{ISBN|3-924588-21-X}}.
• Dunlop MacTavish, Shona Leap of faith: my dance through life. Longacre Press, Dunedin, 1997.{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/8486125|title=Leap of faith: my dance through life|last=MacTavish|first=Shona Dunlop|date=1997|location=Dunedin |publisher=Longacre Press|isbn=9781877135040}}

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Category:1920 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:New Zealand female dancers

Category:Entertainers from Dunedin

Category:New Zealand choreographers

Category:New Zealand autobiographers

Category:New Zealand people of Scottish descent

Category:Academic staff of Silliman University

Category:New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:New Zealand expatriates in Austria

Category:New Zealand expatriates in China

Shona