Tia grew up in China. In 1954, she competed and was accepted at China’s first professional school of dance. There, she studied with some of the most renowned ballet choreographers and dancers in the world, including Pyotr Gusev, and Bolshoi ballet mistress, Elena Alexandrovna. She also studied folk and traditional Chinese dances - fields in which she excelled and went on to become a world renowned expert. During the course of her career in China, she performed as a principal dancer with the National Ballet of China and stayed on after her graduation from the Beijing Academy of Dance, to teach. She continued there for more than twenty years.

After the Cultural Revolution, however, she decided to leave China and defected to Canada. She arrived in the late seventies and was soon introduced to Betty Oliphant, co-founder of the National Ballet School of Canada. Even though Tia could not speak English, Betty was so impressed with her unique skills that she hired her as her assistant. Tia embraced that opportunity, learned how to speak English, and before long, she was hired as a full time teacher. She continued there until her retirement. During her tenure at the school, she was an assessor for Canada Council for the Arts.

Subsequent to her retirement, she went on in 2007 to participate in the establishment of the Fei Tian Academy of the Arts in New York.

Agnes was born in rural Newfoundland, Canada and has a degree is Social Work from Memorial University. She began her career in family counselling and after moving to Toronto began working in the Psychiatry Department of Scarborough General Hospital where she created the first Women’s Crisis Center in Ontario and developed a program for community outreach based on Assertive Communication Skills. The principles of the program together with her unique ability to observe, listen, motivate and inspire led her to write a TV series called Wexford. The series distributed by Discovery since 1998 has been regarded as one of the best filmed teaching tools for helping teens deal with issues such as positive, assertive communication, bullying, peer pressure and race relationships.

During the writing and filming of the series Agnes and her husband Leif, a feature film director and producer, created the story for their first major feature film together, Blizzard, released by MGM in 2003 and now regarded as a Christmas Classic appearing in countries around the world each holiday season. Since then Agnes and Leif have worked together creating and writing the stories for Holiday, Romance, Suspense and Inspirational films distributed by MGM, Hallmark, Lifetime and international clients.

Dancing Through the Shadow is Agnes’ first biographical project. Embarking on the writing of Tia’s story created a new and incredible passion for discovering the stories of women who have overcome great adversities to accomplish so much. Agnes is currently researching and developing the story of a uniquely inspiring group of women who were instrumental in the birth and rise of the African National Congress (ANC). As a director this Documentary is Agnes’ first directorial effort and allowed her to give the audience an insight directly into Tia and her life.

Leif Bristow (Director/EP) together with Agnes Bristow (Writer/Producer) have carved a significant career specializing in the creation and production of some of the highest-rated, award-winning international coproductions including **Castle, Hart, **Moriah’s Lighthouse, **A Tail of Love **Mix Up in the Mediterranean, **To Catch a Spy, **Veteran’s Christmas, *Nostalgic Christmas, **Christmas Next Door, **Love Blossoms, **Love, Romance & Chocolate, propelling Hallmark Channel to the #1 network in the US for the month.

Leif directed **Love on Safari in South Africa, becoming the highest-rated Hallmark Summer movie ever. and just completed directing the independent features Dancing Through the Shadow and **A Tail of Love, both written by Agnes. His credits include 46 movies, 18 for HBO that won 6 Emmy’s and over 200 international awards. He was the first Canadian Filmmaker to utilize Irish, Slovak and Malta coproduction treaties; has produced with Iceland, South Africa, Italy, and Belgium.

He recently finished Jolly Good Christmas for Hallmark in London and is currently in production with Saga Film on The Royal Nanny for Hallmark, TFI, Corus TV in Canada and The 12-episode Canada/Belgian coproduction, Beyond Black Beauty, Amazon Freevees new signature series.

** #1 rated Hallmark movie for 2021** Achieved #1 ranking for the day or/and week, in the US. - * Achieved # 2 Ranking

James Mark Stewart is an award-winning film composer whose numerous film credits include history documentaries, comedies, thrillers, horror, drama, and action. He has composed original score for 26 feature films and seven television series. Most recently, Stewart scored the feature drama Heavy starring Sophie Turner and the feature documentary Metamorphosis.

Paul Whitehead has been a fixture in the Toronto Post Production community these past 32 years. His feature film editing credits include Deepa Mehta's Oscar nominated Water (English Version as co-editor), Dancing Through the Shadow, Looking for Angelina and Peter: The Redemption. His television editing credits include, V Wars, Ghostwriter, Aftermath, Flashpoint, Degrassi, The Pinkertons and Mutant X. Paul dedicates himself to every project and isn't satisfied until the product is the best it can be.