Pueblo dance teacher’s lasting legacy honored through statue at Memorial Hall

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- A dance instructor, who touched hundreds of lives in Pueblo, was memorialized through a bronze statue.

A statue in the likeness of Sarah Shaw was unveiled in front of Pueblo's Memorial Hall on Saturday. Over the years, that's where many of Shaw's recitals were held after her dance studio outgrew several smaller venues.

Shaw taught dance in Pueblo for 56 years, and was well known even outside of the dance community.

Becky Cafasso, the chair of Shaw's memorial committee, told KRDO while the statue shows the importance she had on the Pueblo community, her legacy will always be the way her studio prepared so many young dancers for success both on and off stage.

"Her motto was friends forever; she ended every one of her dance classes having all the dancers in that class in a circle and they'd say 'friends forever,'  and I think that is Sarah's tribute and her motto to our community," said Cafasso.

The statue was paid for through private fundraisers and a generous matching grant from the Buell Foundation.