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.