Shirley Campbell
Shirley Campbell, along with her sister Joyce Campbell became household name among dance enthusiast when she performed with the Ivy Baxter Creative Dance Group, a group founded and directed by Jamaican dance pioneer Ivy Baxter. On joining the NDTC, Campbell became a pioneer in setting new parameters of dance expression based on continuing exploration and experimentation. The exploration into and experimentation with traditional forms in native Jamaica found Shirley a ready and active participant. She is known for her infectious vitality in all she did; and from a saucy hen in Gallandar la Pava she went on to capture audiences in her appearances in such folk-based works as Plantation Revelry and African Scenario. She received arguably her greatest challenge alternating the role of Mary the Mother of Jesus with Sheila Barnett in Eddy Tomas’s masterwork And It Came To Pass. But it was in the works which attempted to break new ground by poignantly speaking to ourselves in the quest for self and society that she excelled. She toured Trinidad, Cuba, Washington and Stratford, Canada and doubled as wardrobe Mistress and taught dance to university undergrads or to YWCA recreation group.