The women I study understood, perhaps better than anyone, the power in performance — in perfecting one's craft, in commanding a stage, in being entirely, deliberately present before an audience.
I have spent a lifetime on stage and have come to understand, through both scholarship and experience, that history and performance are not so very different. The historian who steps into a gilded room to understand its women is performing the same essential act as the dancer who steps into an arena before seventy thousand people: the deliberate, disciplined inhabiting of a space, and the command of every moment within it.
I am a professional dancer, choreographer, and performer. I have danced internationally across the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, India, China, and Mexico. I have performed alongside Kenny Loggins for a Children's Hospital benefit, appeared on So You Think You Can Dance Season 10, and filmed for an MTV reality dance competition series.
Most recently, I was an NFL Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader for three seasons and performed on one of the world's biggest stages, Super Bowl LVII.
The discipline required to perform at that level — the precision, the presence, the ability to hold a room — informs everything. The lecture theatre. The archive. The ballgown on the grand staircase. One does not arrive at any of these unprepared.
On Stage
Garden Dance
Photography Gabby Ruddick Dancer Shelby C Neuhauser Hair and Makeup Corinne Lcfg www.gabrielleruddick.com Venue: Denver Botanic Gardens Historic Solarium
Lyrical Advanced Recital 2020
Advanced lyrical Choreography by Shelby C Neuhauser Gayton Dance Studio recital 2020