Gentry Hiser

Chinook Writer

Reaching retirement age for most people signals the pinnacle of a life’s work and a well-earned time to relax, but for Linda Cox, retirement allowed time to further pursue a lifelong passion. Cox is a retired medical doctor turned student of dance and fine arts.

Cox graduated from Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill in 1985 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. She used her degree wisely and practiced medicine in Colorado and Florida before a job opportunity brought her to Casper.

“I accepted a position here with the allergy group, Dr. Shaw, and everything seemed great. He was going to retire. I was going to take over the practice, but once I got here, I was treated kind of like a dog. It was horrible… So after about three weeks, it didn’t work out,” Cox said. 

She said she applied to other positions, including some out-of-state following her experience, before realizing that most practices seemed unlikely to recruit someone on the verge of retiring. 

While the job opportunity didn’t pan out, Cox didn’t let the move to Casper go to waste.

“Meanwhile, I had driven by Casper College with my husband — it was really cold and icy — and I tried to find the dance department,” said Cox. 

With the permission of Jodi Youmans-Jones, CC dance instructor and NASD arts accreditation coordinator, Cox enrolled in ballet lessons.  

According to Youmans-Jones, “[Linda] had a whole life and then left that life and decided to go back to do something that she really wanted to do when she was 20.” 

Cox participated in any available dance class near her while she was still practicing medicine. When dance wasn’t available, she joined zumba classes instead, she said. 

Now that she is retired, Cox said, “Being back in college prevented this feeling of ‘you’re retired. What do I do with the rest of my life?’ It makes you feel young.”

In 2022, Cox graduated with an associate degree in dance. Now, she’s pursuing another associate degree in fine arts. 

While Cox understood that CC offered the option to audit classes, she lives under the philosophy that, “Personally, I think if you’re pursuing it for something that counts, you work harder. You get more out of it.” 

Youmans-Jones said she believes Cox’s age comes with positives and negatives, just as an 18-year-old’s age does.

“I think it brings an experience. I think it’s also— I’ve had to recognize… and she’s had to recognize that it’s also unearthing a lot of memories that are not always pleasant,” Youmans-Jones said. 

Cox often uses dance and art to process traumatic memories in her life, such as when she was diagnosed with breast cancer around her 60th birthday. Today, she’s over ten years cancer-free. Around the time of her diagnosis, she began using pendants she found in consignment shops to make jewelry as a form of therapeutic expression.

“I got totally into jewelry making. That was my focus. I would wake up and spend a day just designing one strand of a piece I’m working on,” Cox said.

She explained that, “Every piece has a story.”

Cox gave many of her finished jewelry pieces away to friends and family.  

In 2023, Cox and Youmans-Jones published an article together entitled “Dance as a Healing Art.” Youmans-Jones cited both of their colorful personalities as the reason they get along so well. The article was presented as a lecture at the World Allergy Meeting by Cox and was later discussed at a World Health Organization assembly meeting. 

The article discusses the therapeutic benefits of dance.

“Overall, the studies demonstrated that [dance interventions] provided benefits in several physical and psychological parameters, as well as executive function as compared with regular exercise alone. Impressive findings were that dance was associated with increased brain volume and function and neurotrophic growth function,” page one of the article states. 

Cox’ and Youmans-Jones’ article demonstrates both the creative and scientific sides of the brain coming together as one. Youmans-Jones said it was initially a struggle when Cox first came to Casper College to get her to see dance through a creative lens. 

“She really eventually pulled all the way back around and found, re-found her own creative side and her own way of expressing things,” said Youmans-Jones. Using her own history of Dance Medicine, Youmans-Jones said she had to guide an instructor that first worked with Cox upon her enrollment at CC on how to communicate with Cox’s medical brain. 

“First year with Jodi, she would get mad. ‘Want you to stop looking at your clinical side. Work on your creative side.’ And then towards the end of my degree, she said ‘I want you to get clinical,” Cox laughed. 

Cox continued, “It’s an interesting crossover. But when you think about it, there are similarities. Medicine is an art, too.” 

Moving forward, Cox hopes to research healing practices of art, and she’s in the process of developing an article detailing applications of therapeutic practices of art, just as she has with dance. She continues to take dance and art classes at CC, and hopes to use her knowledge to bring classes to the community via a community center.