Teacher-Scholar Legacies: Brantly Bright Shapiro

By Nina Lucas, Professor of Dance, and Mary Wayne-Thomas, Chair of Theatre/Dance

Associate Professor of the Practice Brantly Bright Shapiro has served and taught in the Department of Theatre and Dance for forty years. A remarkable teacher, colleague, and friend, she began as an instructor in our Community Ballet program, which provides ballet training for students five years and up. She went on to direct the program for many years and became an invaluable member of our Dance faculty. The hundreds of dancers who passed through our programs have been the beneficiaries of Brantly’s brilliant diagnostic mind, her impressive training, and her career as a professional dancer. 

At the age of 15, Brantly trained at the San Francisco Ballet School and began her career as a dancer with San Francisco Ballet under the direction of Lew Christensen. She joined the renowned Basel Ballet in Basel, Switzerland, and danced in their corps de ballet as a demi-soloist and soloist in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, and many other ballets. Brantly was then reunited with Lew Christensen at Pacific Northwest Ballet as a guest artist, and there she performed in Christensen’s Nutcracker. She became a principal dancer at Corpus Christi Ballet, performing the role of Cinderella; and Austin Ballet Theatre dancing the roles of Aurora and the Lilac Fairy from Sleeping Beauty, and the White Swan Pas de deux from Swan Lake. Her additional study in classical ballet reads like a Who’s Who in American dance, and includes Dame Margot Fonteyn, Mr. George Balanchine, and many other luminaries of the ballet world.

Brantly began teaching in Community Ballet in 1984, and in 1996 became an adjunct in the Dance Program, teaching ballet technique classes. Three years later, she restaged her first ballet, Romeo and Juliet, for the Wake Forest Dance company.  In 2001, her expertise in classical ballet and her command of a class led to her appointment as a full-time instructor. From there, Brantly became instrumental in building a robust ballet program, one that has inspired students like Margo Miller, who wrote, “The dance department will be forever changed due to Brantly’s wonderful impact. I am incredibly grateful for the time and support she has invested into our program and into our individual lives. She will be truly missed for her humor, her sincerity, and her passion for dance as well as her love of her students.”  

Brantly’s infectious good humor and wit, her creative mind, and her outgoing personality have made her a favorite with faculty and students alike—even students with flagging interest.

Brantly was able to bring back my love for ballet with her motivating and inspiring teaching style. I am endlessly grateful for the lessons she has taught me- in ballet and in life.

Eleanor Roberts

Kind yet rigorous, Brantly has choreographed and restaged numerous challenging excerpts and variations from classical ballets on the Wake Forest University Dance Company, including Delibes Suite, Don Quixote Dream Scene, Excerpts of The Underwater Kingdom, Classical Gala, Le Corsaire excerpts, Raymonda excerpts, La Bayadere, Giselle Act 1 excerpts, Sleeping Beauty Prologue – The Christening, Giselle Act II excerpts, Dream, Don Quixote, La Bayadere, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Waltz of the Flowers, Markitenka, Coppelia, Variations from Paquita, Markitenka Pas de six, Paquita Pas de Trois, Bijoux, Pas de Trois from Swan Lake Act I, Excerpts from Napoli, and Romeo and Juliet.  

Deeply connected to the Winston Salem dance community, she has guest-taught at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, summer, preparatory, and college programs. She is a beloved teacher and mentor, not only to students at Wake, but to students in our surrounding community. In addition to her skill as a teacher, we will miss her generous spirit, her joy, and her boisterous laugh.