Doreen Bird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Doreen Bird (27 January 1928 - 4 February 2004) was the founder and leader of the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts (now Bird College of Dance & Theatre Performance), which she founded in Sidcup, Kent in 1949.
Initially, Bird taught students in her parents' living room (rolling up the carpet), and later opened her full-time training school with just 7 students. Today, that number has risen to over 120 and the college's two large buildings house fully equipped facilities for dancing, singing and drama training, with other buildings used for related subjects and housing the colleges management and administrative departments. The college is one of the most renowned training centres for dance and theatre in the United Kingdom, with students travelling from all over Europe and beyond to audition for one of its courses.
Bird was the principal of the college until 1998, whereupon the management of the college became the responsibility of Miss Sue Passmore, a member of the ISTD Council and former Head of Theatre at the Bush Davis School. Since Passmore's retirement in 2005, the college has been managed by a board of Directors, under its current Executive Director, Shirley Coen and Artistic Director (Vice-Principal), Luis de Abreu, who is himself a former student of Doreen Bird. Today the college boasts an impressive resume of Patrons, Trustees and other supporters who work for its continued success. These include actor Matthew Kelly, former Royal Ballet dancer and Internationally reknown choreographer Gillian Lynne, West End producer and former Bird Student David Morgan, Phrosso Pfister and Sian Phillips.
As well as her unwavering commitment to her college, Doreen Bird was also an active and much respected teacher, examiner, committee and council member of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.
In particular, as a committee member for the Modern Theatre Dance branch, a position which she held for 16 years (1970-1986), Miss Bird helped to compile all the societies new Major Modern and Tap dance syllabi, with much of her work and influence still very much in evidence today. She was appointed examiner of the Modern Theatre Branch in 1957, National Dance Branch in 1958 and Imperial Ballet Branch in 1964. She served as a council member for the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing from 1970 to 1975. She received the Imperial Faculty Award in 1996 and an Hon MA Degree from the University of Greenwich in 1999.
As a lasting demonstration of her power and exceptional vitality as one of our great visionary teachers of dance and theatre, Miss Birds students continue to appear in dance and theatre throughout the World, with many currently starring in some of the West Ends biggest selling musicals. Generations of students will mourn her passing, whilst many of the teachers she has worked with have described thir association as some of the happiest years of their lives.
Many years of consistency and vareful planning have taken Doreen Bird from a rolled up living room carpet, to the very top of the British dancing and teaching profession and through her great work, many hundreds more students can now benefit from her great passion... DANCE.
