Jacquelyn Brown

After high school, Jacquelyn studied dance and music at York University in Toronto and the University of Waterloo, graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Waterloo in 1989. She also studied voice and piano in Leamington, Ont., Windsor, Ont., and Winnipeg, Man., completing Royal Conservatory examinations.

Early in her career, Jacquelyn served as head coach for the Leamington Gymnastic Club, as well as founder, program director and head coach of the Leamington School of Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics. She also taught health and physical education at a Mennonite secondary school in Leamington, Ontario.

During a five-year residency in Kansas, Jacquelyn further developed her interests in sacred dance performance and choreography. She performed as founding member of Feet Of Fire, a sacred dance troupe, and presented numerous solo and group performances and workshops in church and conference settings in the United States and Canada. In 1989, she studied at the graduate level with two pioneers of American sacred dance, Carla DeSola and Cynthia Winton-Henry, at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.

While living in the United States, Jacquelyn worked with director John McCabe-Juhnke and the drama departments of Tabor College, Hesston, Kansas, and Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, as a choreographer for college productions. Among them were Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. Jacquelyn also taught dramatic dance classes.

Photo credit: Photo of granddaughter’s dance shoes by Jacquelyn Brown