A Calgary woman is hoping that she will learn as much as she will teach after getting an opportunity to instruct children at the school Oprah Winfrey recently opened in South Africa.
"You think you've done your peak, you've been there, done that and...then this comes up and it's like starting again," Shirley Murray told CTV's Canada AM. "There's a whole new process out there for me to learn from and enjoy and be stimulated by and my goodness -- it's a good world."
Murray got the opportunity to teach at Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls in Johannesburg after her retirement as a dance professor at the University of Calgary ended a 39-year-old career.
Murray, 60, was interested in travelling to Africa as it is the only continent that she had yet to visit.
When she watched a television special on Winfrey's school earlier this year, Murray immediately thought that teaching at the school could provide her with the opportunity to fulfill her ambition.
In May, Murray wrote a letter to the South African school, which opened in January, outlining her desire to teach.
She did not receive a response until last month when she received an email inviting her to teach at the school in September. However, Murray doubts she will meet the talk-show host on her trip.
Murray, whose services are being offered on a volunteer basis, will teach 12- and 13-year-old students the Laban method of dance, which she says will help build self-esteem.
"It's very much a personal development process and it's using dance and a love of language as a tool to actually have them feel better about themselves and get to know themselves a little bit more," Murray said.
It's a technique that Murray has utilized throughout her career, including as head choreographer of the opening ceremonies at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
Indeed, on her trip to Africa, Murray will meet with organizers of the 2010 soccer World Cup which will be held in South Africa, to advise them on organizing opening ceremonies.
Another component of her trip, for which Murray will leave on August 15, will be to meet with teachers and students at various academic institutions in South Africa to set up student exchanges with the University of Calgary.
Despite all of her expertise, Murray feels even she has something to learn from her students.
"It drives me nuts when people talk about five-year-olds as...'those little ones,'" Murray said. "They're only five years into the world but they're full of it and they've got a lot more to teach you than you've probably got to teach them," Murray said.
