Frederick Olds was born in Port Huron, Michigan in 1939. His family moved to the Detroit area in 1945. He attended Wayne State University as an undergraduate and was the recipient of the Major Tompkins writing award for his poetry. Olds studied poetry with W.D. Snodgrass and creative writing with Keith Waldrup. He completed his undergraduate degree in Sociology in 1966.

Upon completion of his degree, Olds moved to Chicago to work at the Chicago Youth Center in the Stockyards area. During his time in Chicago he began photographing for the Hubbard Street Dance School. He returned to Michigan in 1967 to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan. In 1969, he received his Master of Social Work degree. He then worked as a social worker for the Lamphere Schools in Madison Heights, Michigan from 1969 until his retirement in 2001.

In addition to photography of the Cranbrook Kingswood Dance department, Olds photographed dancers from Marygrove College in Detroit. Two portraits of a Marygrove dancer performing at the Greek Theatre at Cranbrook were given special recognition at a photographic exhibition at the Scarab Club in Detroit.

Jessica Sinclair was born in Detroit and grew up in Hamtramck, Michigan. Raised in a Ukrainian household, Sinclair became interested in dance at an early age. Her parents introduced her to Ukrainian folk music and dance as a toddler.

Sinclair studied dance through high school and spent several summers at the Connecticut College American Dance Festival. During this time, she studied with modern dance legends, such as Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Jose Limon. While a student at Wayne State University, Sinclair began teaching modern dance as part of Kingswood School’s physical education program.

During her tenure, Sinclair was responsible for the growth of Cranbrook’s dance department. Under her direction, students performed at the Performing Arts Winter Festival, the annual Evening of Dance concerts, the Strickland Dance competition, as well as at the Cranbrook Schools’ Gala de Cuisine fundraisers and the Guy Fawkes Ball at Cranbrook Academy of Art.

In 1975, Sinclair traveled with her dancers to perform in Portugal. Subsequent performance trips included Austria, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Venezuela, France, and the former Soviet Union. In 1990, Sinclair taught modern dance for three months in the former Soviet republic in Tbilisi, Georgia. She was also a guest teacher at the University of Washington and at workshops in Finland and Spain. Sinclair was recognized by Cranbrook School alumni David Strickland (Class ’73) with a lifetime achievement award. In 2002, she retired from her position as Head of the Dance Department.