Jackie Harrison Mason 1974

If joy and beauty in motion had an offspring, that would be Jackie Mason Harrison.  Jackie’s life has always been about expressing herself through dance, and about inspiring others to do the same.  Jackie credits the late dance teacher Lucy Stockdell - who, by the way, received this award in 2015 - as a tremendous influence, starting in Lower School “when she had us dancing with scarves and learning the Virginia Reel [and in] Middle and Upper School, as we explored making interesting shapes with our bodies, joyfully danced up and down the aisles of St. Stephen's Church, and when she took us to improvisational dance workshops with ground-breaking choreographers!” After graduating from college with a B.A. in Fine Arts/Dance, Jackie was hired by St. Catherine’s to join her mentor, Lucy, in directing The Joni Rodman Dance Theatre and guiding young girls in the art of dance. Like Lucy, she went on to shape countless lives through the art of dance.  

The image of a whirling dervish (though a gentle one) comes to mind when you consider the hours Jackie spent over the next 38 years dancing, teaching, choreographing, performing, tweaking, refining and rehearsing with her students.  Her soft manner and calm demeanor encouraged even the most reticent girl to shine, and her students knew she would never ask more of them than she did of herself.  She loved the freedom of expression dance, and she wanted every girl to experience that joy.  Someone recently asked Jackie how she “taught interpretive” dance.  Her reply: “I would have the student take an idea and try to find a way to show it through movement.” 

 

Tyler Hogg Wheeler ’03 sums up her experience this way: “Jackie was such a special part of my thirteen years at St. Catherine's.  Her creative passion for the performing arts is matched by her passion for teaching her students - developing their artistic expression and technique as well as creating meaningful relationships that in my case extend far beyond graduation.  No matter what kind of day I was having as a student, I knew when I climbed the stairs to the McVey dance studio that Jackie would be there with a smile and I would have a space to move, create, and learn.”

 

In addition to teaching at St. Catherine’s, in the 1980s Jackie was the founding dance teacher for SPARC (School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community) and performed with various VCU spin-off dance companies. In the 1990s she was named Department Head of Theatre and Dance Dept. at St. Catherine’s, and since that wasn’t a heavy enough lift, she added hiking, rock climbing, snowboarding and Trapeze -flying (you heard correctly) to her movement repertoire. And, in 2001, she married her soulmate and fellow Ampersand member from “back in the day.” 

In 2018, Jackie retired after 38 amazing and fulfilling years of teaching dance at St. Catherine’s. You may have caught on by now that sitting at home doing cross stitch would not be Jackie’s version of retirement. “I am still dancing,” she says, “though this time as the student, not the teacher, taking classes at local dance studios.  I serve on the Advisory Board of Conflux Dance Theater, an impressive new dance company in Richmond.” 

This remarkable, quiet force of nature has been a blessing to students and colleagues, who were the beneficiaries of her boundless energy and creativity. Her license plate says it all: CR8V MVT (Creative Movement.)  In recognition of the difference she has made and the joy she has brought to the dance program, her students and colleagues, we are delighted to present Jackie Harrison Mason with the 2024 Outstanding Service Award.