McKechnie, Shirley

A dancer, teacher, choreographer and dance director, McKechnie is one of the pioneers of contemporary dance in Australia. She founded the Australian Contemporary Dance Theatre (1963) and, in 1975, the first degree course in dance studies in an Australian tertiary institution at Rusden College, now Deakin University. With Dame Peggy van Praagh she founded the Australian Association For Dance Education (now Ausdance) in 1977. She was Founding chair of the Tertiary Dance Council of Australia (1986), and she founded the Green Mill Dance Project. McKechnie has served on national and international panels for the accreditation of dance courses, for symposiums on research in dance and as a consultant to government on policies for art education. She is now a Professorial Fellow at the Victoria College of the Arts.