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The Memorial Candle Program has been designed to help offset the costs associated with the hosting this Tribute Website in perpetuity. Through the lighting of a memorial candle, your thoughtful gesture will be recorded in the Book of Memories and the proceeds will go directly towards helping ensure that the family and friends of Ruth Priddle can continue to memorialize, re-visit, interact with each other and enhance this tribute for future generations.

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A Treasured Colleague and Friend

It is with a very heavy heart that I share a few memories of my treasured colleague and friend Ruth. She was such an inspiration to me from the very early years of our teaching appointments to Waterloo and York Universities, respectively. In her typical gregarious fashion, she welcomed me into the organizations, events, and exchanges that bridged the historic links between Physical Education and dance in Canada during the late 60s and early 70s. Her direction of the Bi-National Dance Conference in 1971 was extraordinary. Ruth gathered us from across the country, not only connecting us with the many key university dance people, international performers, and national practitioners of the period, but also to our American counterparts. She had the remarkable ability to inspire both academic and artistic connections and to encourage friendships through working together for organizations such as the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) and for Dance and the Child International (daCi). I marveled at how she shaped the Carousel Dance Company, which, to this day, has sustained its vigour and aesthetic principles upon which it was built. Ruth and I, with our respective young companies (Carousel and the ARTStart Youth Ensemble), enjoyed many exciting performance exchanges, choreographic workshops, and trips to daCi conferences throughout the world. I always looked forward to hearing about her latest research on creativity and dance with youngsters. Ruth’s work in dance psychology pushed the boundaries of investigation, challenging both academics and practitioners to consider the deeper ranges of meaning making in dance creation. I feel so fortunate to have known and worked with Ruth throughout our careers. She was an exceptional colleague and friend—witty, charismatic, generous, and a gifted intellectual. I shall miss her dearly.

Posted by Mary-Elizabeth Manley
Friday June 17, 2016 at 8:48 pm
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