Doreen Bird

Doreen Bird MA FISTD ARAD (27 January 1928 – 4 February 2004) was a British dance teacher and founder of the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in Sidcup, Kent (now South-east London). She was a fellow, examiner, lecturer, committee and council member of the ISTD, life member of the RAD, and Honorary MA. Prior to her death from Leukaemia in 2004, she had been studying towards a Ph.D. As well as being a respected dance figure in the United Kingdom, Bird also travelled the World as a lecturer and adjudicator specialising in dance and musical theatre. The college which Bird founded is now recognised Internationally as a centre of excellence for dance and performing arts, with its students working worldwide in high-profile areas of the performing industry including West End and Broadway theatre.

In 1945, Bird founded the Doreen Bird School of Dance, the predecessor of today's Bird College of Dance, Music & Theatre Performance. Bird initially taught her students in her parents' living room then a local church hall, before opening a full-time performing arts course at permanent premises in Sidcup. This became the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts and Bird remained Principal of the College until her retirement in 1998, when the name Bird College was adopted under its new Principal. The college is one of the United Kingdom's leading institutions for specialist dance and musical theatre training, with many ex-students of the college appearing in dance and theatre Worldwide including West End and Broadway theatre. The college now operates a range of courses including the National Diploma in Musical Theatre and the BA (Hons) Degree in Dance & Theatre Performances, both courses being established during Bird's tenure as Principal. The College has continued to expand since Bird died, becoming the first college of its kind in the UK to offer an MA Degree (by research), as subject specialist provider for the University of Greenwich. Since October 2007, the college has also been the official provider of Music and Dance services for the London Borough of Bexley.

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