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| '''Dolores Melba May Niskanen (nee Vuori)''' (born circa 1940) was [[Michael Currie]]'s first ballroom dance teacher. | | '''Dolores Melba May Niskanen (nee Vuori)''' is a Canadian of Finnish descent and professional dancer and dance instructor. She ran a [[Dance Studios of Thunder Bay|dance studio in Thunder Bay]] for about 30 years from about 1975 to 2005. Since then she has lived in London, Ontario. |
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| ==Early life==
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| Dolores was born to [Irene] and [https://www.geni.com/people/Hannes-Johannes-Vuori/6000000045689225101 Hannes Antinpoika Vuori] (1892 - 1962). Her mother later remarried to Onni Kuisma.
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| Her father later remarried also, to [https://www.geni.com/people/Amelia-Hermanson/6000000050479504154 Amelia Hermanson], giving her a half-brother, [https://www.geni.com/people/Raymond-Ward-Vuori/6000000045712178901 Ray Ward]
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| She married Wally Niskanen circa 1955.
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| In 1958, with her husband she had her son Keven in St. Catherines, then moved to Victoria, BC.
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| Her father died in 1962 at age 70 in Saint Catharines.
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| ==Career==
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| In the early 1960s, Dolores was the instructor for the [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yritys Yritys] athletic club, part of the Toronto Yritys and Finnish Organization. They performed a "mass gym by the girls, a hoop gym by the girls and a folk dance (a Finnish polka)", on Sunday 9 July 1961.
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| Dolores Niskanen donated a gift certificate for her School of Dance to the first "Wymmyn's [sic] Social", held on 14 November 1981 in Thunder Bay.
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| As of 1999 she ran the '''Dolores Niskanen Studio Of Fitness & Dance''', at 16 Court Street South, in the historic [http://theruttanblock.com/ Ruttan Block], (named for the former mayor of Port Arthur, [https://www.thunderbay.ca/en/city-hall/mayor-james-farrand-ruttan.aspx Mayor James Ruttan]) in downtown Port Arthur, Thunder Bay. The studio's phone number was (807) 344-1300.
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| Michael Currie took classes with Tanya Elise Oja circa 1999 for about two semesters.
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| One of her most dedicated students circa 1999 was named Wayne.
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| Her business shut down sometime prior to 2009, since Google Street View shows the studio as derelict as of 2009, and occupied by a lingerie store as of 2012.
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| {{quote
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| |text=I am especially grateful to my wife Dolores Niskanen for her patience during the many years when she thought I was glued to my computer. But then, she understands passion for a calling from her own long career in dance and choreography. | |
| |author=Dr. Allan Paivio, second husband of Dolores, in the acknowledgements to his book, ''Mind and Its Evolution'', 2007
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| }}
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| ==Personal life==
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| Her first husband was Wally Niskanen. With him she had a son, Keven Richard Vuori Niskanen (1958 - 2 March 2014), born in St. Catherines. At the time of Keven's death in 2014, Wally lived in Red Deer. Keven was "a licensed finishing carpenter and had a great interest in architecture, design, and colour. He loved animals and was a fan of the Rolling Stones." From his obituary it does not appear that Keven married or had issue. This means Dolores has no surviving biological descendants since 2014.
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| Her second husband was [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Paivio Dr. Allan Paivio] (1925 - 2016), who was born in Thunder Bay and was later Professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario. She married him sometime after his first wife Kathleen Laura Blanche "Kay" Austin died after 50 years of marriage (circa 1945 - 1995). [7]
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| Coincidentally, in 1928 her second husband's father worked briefly on a paper called Vapaus (Finnish for "freedom"). In 1961 this same paper reported on Dolores' dance coaching at an event in Toronto; this would have been 30 years before she would have met her second husband.
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| With Dr. Allan she became stepmother to his five adult children from his previous 50-year marriage to Kay: Sandra, Anna Lee, Heather, Eric, Karina.
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| At 14:00 on Sunday 2 March 2014, she watched her only child Keven "take his final breath" at the University Hospital, London.
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| ==Sources==
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| 1. Mind and Its Evolution: A Dual Coding Theoretical Approach By Allan Paivio. [https://books.google.co.th/books?id=FaGYAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11&lpg=PR11&dq=dolores+niskanen&source=bl&ots=Fbd9SoL0Zy&sig=ACfU3U0hqQL7t0RscTb9CCoSgqqhdUioQA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjA75jwzevhAhX67HMBHYPaD4EQ6AEwCHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=dolores%20niskanen&f=false Google Books]
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| 2. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chroniclejournal/obituary.aspx?n=keven-niskanen&pid=174241737
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| 3. http://yourlifemoments.ca/sitepages/obituary.asp?oid=792072
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| 4. http://ca.soopage.com/company/Niskanen_Dolores_Studio_Of_Fitness_Dance_5Yw8.html
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| 5. http://yourlifemoments.ca/sitepages/obituary.asp?oId=961211
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| 6. 13 July 1961. Vapaus (Sudbury). https://newspapers.lib.sfu.ca/vapaus2500-42082/page-3
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| 7. Northern Women Journal, 1981. http://northernwomansbookstore.ca/resources/NWJ/1981%20Vol%207%20No.%201.CV01.pdf
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| 8. UWO remembers Dr. Al Paivio http://www.psychology.uwo.ca/people/faculty/remembrance/paivio-psynopsiswinter2017.pdf
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| 9. Tanya Oja, Considering Childlessness. 2008.
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| https://philpapers.org/rec/OJACCA
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Dolores Melba May Niskanen (nee Vuori) is a Canadian of Finnish descent and professional dancer and dance instructor. She ran a dance studio in Thunder Bay for about 30 years from about 1975 to 2005. Since then she has lived in London, Ontario.