Joyce Boorman
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Joyce Boorman was an award winning pioneer in children's dance education.
[edit] Biography
Boorman was born in the United Kingdom. She received her teaching certificate at St. Gabriel’s College, London, and an advanced diploma from the Laban Art of Movement Studio. She taught in England until the late 1960s, when she emigrated to Canada. There she continued her studies, earning an Master of Arts from the Department of Ballet and Modern Dance at the University of Utah, and a PhD from the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta in 1980.
Boorman authored several important works on creative dance for children, taught in the Department of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and directed the Children’s Dance Theatre there. Boorman was widely known to be the driving force and organizer behind the First International Conference on Dance and the Child held at the University of Alberta in July of 1978. The Conference was subtitled “The Child As Spectator, Creator, Performer” and was sponsored by the Dance Committee of CAHPER, and Alberta Culture at the University of Alberta. She was awarded the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal for her professional contributions to the Canadian Associated of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (CAHPER). She was also awarded the Tait McKenzie Medallion of CAPHER and the Alberta Achievement Award of Excellence.
