Voice of Dance

Shawl-Anderson Dance Center Honored by City of Berkeley


December 12, 2008

Frank Shawl and Victor Anderson.

Fifty years ago Frank Shawl and Victor Anderson wrapped up their careers with the May O'Donnell Dance Company in New York City, headed west and began a small studio above a liquor store in Berkeley, Calif. Over the next half century, the studio grew into a full-blown dance center with studios, performance space, master classes, workshops and an Artist in Residence program with the distinct goal of cultivating artists in the community and providing them with the “time and space to create work, free of expectations of an end product.” This nurturing philosophy applied to all levels of the studio and dancers of all ages. It also attracted luminaries such as Bella Lewitzky, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey and Alwin Nikolai.

To celebrate the center’s golden anniversary and commemorate its legacy to the Berkeley community, the City of Berkeley has declared next Tuesday, Dec. 16th, as "Shawl-Anderson Day." The public is invited to celebrate this honor with a public ceremony sponsored by the Berkeley City Council and mayor’s office at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Berkeley City Council Chambers, 2140 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.