This is the story of an extraordinary educator who also became a dance leader. As superintendent of the public K-12 Cheyenne Mountain School in Colorado Springs from 1916 to 1951, Lloyd Shaw conducted an experiment in public education that won national attention. After coaching a successful football team for several years, he discontinued the sport and went in search of a safer and more inclusive activity. When he stumbled upon the American square dance, he knew he had found something precious that could occupy his students and enrich the lives of adults as well. He researched this intrinsically American folk art and developed an exhibition team of high school students whose performances during the 1940s revived an interest in square dancing across the nation. But square and folk dancing was only one facet of the Cheyenne School experience. Lloyd Shaw also wanted his students to experience the extended world around them. There were camping trips and expeditions around the state, ski outings before there were any ski resorts, a nature preserve as part of the school campus, a student-owned school cabin up above Seven Falls, and performances of every sort. Much of the story of his life presented here was written by Lloyd Shaw himself and by his wife Dorothy Stott Shaw, who was a respected poet in the Colorado Springs area. It has been edited and completed by their granddaughter, Enid Obee Cocke.
About the Author: Enid Obee was born in Colorado Springs but grew up in Boise Idaho. At the age of 15 she had a life-changing experience when her grandmother Dorothy Shaw invited her to come to Colorado and help her host the Lloyd Shaw Dance Fellowship. Enid was bowled over by the joy of dancing and the beautiful sense of community that prevailed under Dorothy's leadership. For many years the Fellowship week would be the highlight of the year, as it was for all who came. It was there that she got an education in dance, dance history, and dance leadership. She attended Scripps College in Claremont, California where she earned a BA in English but devoted much of her time to participating in an international folk dance exhibition team and Orchesis, a modern dance performance group. After her junior year she attended Hanya Holm's modern dance summer institute, which was held at Colorado College. At folk dancing in her senior year she met Lew Cocke who was finishing his doctorate in Physics at Caltech. They were engaged by the end of the school year and married after their respective graduations in 1967. They moved to Strasbourg, France where Lew had a postdoc in nuclear physics. After two years of settling into the French culture and exploring much of Europe, they moved to Manhattan, KS where Lew took a position in the Physics Department at Kansas State University. They had two daughters: Erica, born in 1970, and Meagan in 1972. Enid enrolled in education courses to earn a teaching credential at Kansas State, but she soon opted to take a teaching assistantship and earn an MA in English. There she gravitated toward teaching the support courses that were offered for international students. With the support of the Graduate School and the Provost, she founded and directed the English Language Program, where she worked until retiring. It was then that she had the time to pull together the chapters that Lloyd and Dorothy Shaw had written and to complete the story of their lives and the amazing programs that they created at Cheyenne Mountain School. During all these years of rearing children and working at the university, the entire family continued to be involved in the Lloyd Shaw Fellowship week and then in the Lloyd Shaw Foundation. Lew is the current treasurer, and Enid edits the LSF quarterly magazine, The American Dance Circle, and serves on the board of directors.