Acclaimed Penticton dancer Shannon Cote once shared the stage with Sir Paul McCartney

Not many performers can say they once shared the stage with Sir Paul McCartney, but Penticton’s Shannon Cote can.

After establishing herself as one of Canada’s top professional dancers, a good friend in Toronto called her saying McCartney’s entourage were looking for four local dancers from Toronto to perform as part of an opening dance sequence as part of McCartney’s Driving USA Tour back in 2002.

“What happened was a good friend of mine called me up and asked what I was doing this weekend and I told her I had no plans,” said Cote, who started dancing as a little girl at the Okanagan Dance Studios in Penticton and has been working there as a full-time dance instructor for the past decade.

“She asked me straight up if I would like to dance at the Paul McCartney concert that Saturday night. I honestly thought she was pulling my leg, but she wasn’t. As part of each show on his Driving USA Tour, he started off every concert with a huge dance number and he invited four local dancers from each city to join his own dance crew. I grew up listening to The Beatles and I was still a huge Beatles fan, so I obviously jumped at it.”

That concert took place on April 13, 2002 in the Air Canada Centre in downtown Toronto.

After a couple of rehearsals, Cote, now age 39, was sharing the stage with one of The Beatles.

“It was definitely one of the highlights of my career and my life,” she said. “The opening dance number lasted about 10 minutes, but we got to watch the entire concert from backstage and it was amazing being able to see a musical icon you idolized playing in front of 25,000 people.

“At the end of the concert, he brought out all the dancers for a final bow and there I was standing only a couple of feet away from him. It was such a thrill. He came backstage and personally thanked everyone for doing a great job. It was something I will certainly never forget as long as I live. It remains easily one of the top five highlights of my life."

Her mother Jeanne “is the world’s biggest Beatles fan” and she saved the phone message she sent to her mom informing her she was going to be performing at the McCartney concert for months, she said smiling.

You don’t get asked to share the stage with one of The Beatles unless you have talent and Cote has shown a talent for dancing - as well as singing and acting - since a very young age.

She received all of her formative training at the Okanagan Dance Studio, before deciding to move to Toronto back in 1997.

“I was working in Los Angeles and dancing at Disneyland, but it was going to take me six to 10 months to maybe get a green card, so I decided I was going to move to Toronto,” said Cote. “By this point in my life, I knew 100 percent that I wanted to be a professional dancer, but I was also interested in what everyone back then called being a triple threat … dancing, singing and acting.

“Another dancer I knew well had told be about the Randolph Centre for the Arts in Toronto, so I applied there and was accepted. I had an amazing experience going to that school and when I graduated in 2001 I received the Triple Threat Award in my final year. The goal of Randolph is to ensure you are qualified in all three disciplines because if you weren’t, it was just really hard to get enough work to make a living.”

Soon after graduation, Cote hooked up with a bunch of female friends she had met in Toronto's arts scene and formed an all-girl punk band called Beatrix that became hugely popular for more than six years. Cote was the lead singer.

“We were playing the biggest clubs in Toronto and we had a huge following,” she said. “We had recorded demos and were very close to signing a couple of big deals with some major record companies.

“Unfortunately, the other girls in the band weren’t into it was much as I was and we finally did split up after about six years, but it was an incredible run and easily some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”

When she wasn’t playing in the band, Cote was landing many high-profile gigs working in musical theatre in Toronto.

With New York City and Broadway the “ultimate goal” for almost any dancer in North America, Cote took the plunge and moved to New York for three months.

She auditioned for the classic Broadway show 42nd Street and was offered a job, but couldn’t accept when she informed the producers she was Canadian and had not been able to obtain her green card.

“When you’re a dancer, you dream of New York and Broadway and it’s something that I just had to do,” she said. “During the short period I was in New York, I was auditioning almost every day and getting some fantastic offers, but I couldn’t accept them because of my visa problems.

“I’m a very proud Canadian and have no regrets whatsoever about what happened, but I do often think about what might have happened with my life and my career if it wasn’t so hard to get a green card and would have been able to achieve my dream and perform on Broadway.”

When she returned to Toronto, she and her boyfriend agreed they were getting tired of life in the big city and when she found out her father was gravely ill, they decided they were going to return to British Columbia, said Cote.

She and her husband Tom, who have been together for 13 years, are the proud parents of Jack, 4, and Finley, 11 months.

“Even though I loved most of my time in Toronto, I had always had in the back of my mind that I would eventually come home,” said Cote. “When my Dad got sick, that was the final straw. We packed our bags, I convinced Tom to join me and we headed back to Penticton. We were talking about starting a family and I knew I didn’t want to do that in the big city.”

Okanagan Dance Studios owner Traci Bourne hired her soon after she returned home a decade ago and she’s been working as a full-time instructor ever since.

Being able to teach at the same school where she was taught is like a dream come true, said Cote.

“This is the same school where I fell in love with dance as a little girl,” she said. “Everything I have been able to achieve would not have happened without my time at Okanagan Dance Studios. When I came back, it was still this same amazing place with a great foundation of teachers who work as a team to help our students achieve their dreams.”

Besides teaching the basic moves and steps in jazz, ballet, classical, modern and other dance genres, the philosophy at Okanagan Dance Studios is to make things fun at all times and offer other experiences outside the studio, said Cote.

That’s why Bourne and the other teachers continue to offer trips to New York City and have students play at numerous community events and seniors centres throughout the year, she said.

Several students recently were featured in a video produced by local singer-songwriter Bill Boogaardt that turned out exceptionally well, she said.

“We want our students to be well rounded in all disciplines … because that gives you more opportunities,” she said.

Okanagan Dance Studios will be bringing back the popular “Dancesical” called In My Life that was a huge hit with local audiences a few years ago, she said.

Ironically, all of the music In My Life is from The Beatles and the entire story is told through interpretive dance, said Cote.

In My Life will return to local stages in November and she expects local audiences will love the show.

Cote said she considers herself blessed and fortunate to continue to make a good living pursuing her passion for dance and the arts.

“Everything I have achieved in my life is directly related to my love of dance,” she said. “Not only have I had the chance to travel around the world, but I also met my husband working at The Keg in Toronto and I moved to Toronto only because of dance. Dancing is what defines me and I’ll be dancing until my legs won’t work anymore.”