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Diki Shields
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Eurydice "Diki" Shields began dancing as a child at festivals and weddings with her Greek parents. She later began expanding her repertoire of international folk dance as an undergraduate at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). Because she was usually the only person from Riverside besides Saul Frommer who attended workshops or dance camps in the Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara areas, Diki began teaching folk dance at UCR.
Diki taught workshops in children's dances for school teachers and was a teacher of folk dancing in the San Bernardino-Riverside County areas for more than fifteen years.
Diki was the driving force behind "Instructours," a folk dancer teacher booking "agency." She was instrumental in the two national tours of Dick Oakes and other well-known teachers.
In the mid-1970s, Diki and Dick decided to create and co-direct a folk dance camp over the holiday week at year's end. They called it Holiday Camp. The camp was very successful and ran for six years. In the 1990s, Diki and Rich Duree held a Holiday Camp reunion experience. Not content with helping to run just one camp, Diki collaborated with Dennis Boxell to put on the successful Washington State Balkan Camp located on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound.
Diki was the proud parents of twin boys, Richard and Tim, and a girl, Katina, who became a fine fok dance teacher and choreographer in her own right.
Diki received her Bachelor's degree in Computer Technology and retired vocationally from the computer field.
Diki Shields passed away peacefully of cancer at her home in Mission Viejo, California on March 13, 2014.