Ann Marie Blessin Oral History, 2006

Ann Marie Blessin recounts her early years growing up in Scotland and Canada. By the age of 13, Blessin was teaching dance, and was certified to teach Highland dancing as well as tap dancing. Blessin's grandmother wanted her to pursue a career as a nurse so she enrolled in nursing school, but never finished the degree. She talks about teaching tap dancing for the Linkletter/Tauten Dance Studio in Arizona and then in Denver, Colorado. Blessin discusses her involvement in sacred dance that began in 1969. Blessin was involved both with the church and with dancing so in 1969 choir director, Lee Fiser, of the Park Hill Methodist Church asked her to choreograph Benjamin Britton's, "Ceremony of Carols", which his group was presenting. That was the beginning of Blessin's lifetime involvement in sacred dance. She devised interpretive movements for her sacred dance that she would formulate from listening to the music and words. Blessin says in moving to the music, working with the rhythms the dance comes from the feelings and thoughts inside, from the creative process. She involved others, dancing at churches and gatherings. Ann Marie Blessin talks about meeting Connie Fisher, a founding mother of sacred dance, in 1970. Fisher led sacred dance troupes, The Jubilate Dancers and The Celebrants, which Blessin joined. The groups toured and presented workshops all over the Denver Metro Area. Blessin and others formed the Rocky Mountain Sacred Dance Guild in the 1970s. The National Sacred Dance Guild did exist at that time but was headquartered in the East with little communication with the West. Blessin discusses enrolling at the Colorado Women's College in 1976 where she studied dance, dance therapy, anatomy and kinesiology. She studied folk dance with Rita Berger. After graduating she worked for 16 years with the elderly in nursing homes and hospitals. She was interested in gerontology and aging so she worked with Edith Sherman at the University of Denver. Blessin ends the interview by discussing in detail her continued involvement with the Sacred Dance Guild and sacred dance.