Flavia Waters Champe

Born 1902-04-03 Lincoln, NE (USA)

Died 1992-10-06
Lincoln, NE (USA)

Buried
Friend, NE (USA)
Andrew Cemetery

One of the major research fellowships at UNL is named after Flavia Champe and her husband, the anthropologist John Champe. She was a dancer, beginning to learn to dance at age 10 at the Lincoln YWCA. In the early 1920s she danced in vaudeville with the Portia Mansfield Dancers, who appeared on stage barefoot and with short skirts. She married longtime University of Nebraska anthropology professor John Champe and was a famed dance teacher who directed her own private dance school in Lincoln for many years. Her Innocents on Broadway was based on letters written to her mother 1921-1924 when she was in the Portia Mansfield dance troupe.

The Nebraska State Historical Society has Flavia Waters Champe's papers and letters.

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Places Lived

Lincoln, NE
New York City, NY

Author Of

Biography
Nonfiction

Keywords

Dance; Matachines; Pueblo Indians; Biography

Occupation

Dancer
Dance Teacher
Director, Private Dance Studio, Lincoln, NE

Honors

Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, 1986, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Bibliography

The Matachines Dance of the Upper Rio Grande: History, Music, and Choreography. 1983.
Innocents on Broadway. 1987.

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