RSCDS Toronto Workshop

The Toronto Workshop is popular with dancers from all over the GTA and beyond. By tradition, the Workshop features three teachers: One from Away (this year it's Britain); one from regional Ontario; and one from Toronto. Each of these teachers is well-experienced, and adept at helping you improve your dancing. It's not always about footwork — finesse and social skills are also on the agenda. Each class – Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced – will have each teacher at some point during the day and all three will teach the Combined Class.

If you need guidance for deciding which level you should register for, ask your teacher or download this Guide to Dance Levels.

Your Full Package includes a tasty lunch and entry to the November Monthly Dance.

We have a new venue this year. . . prestigious Bishop Strachan School in beautiful Forest Hill Village <map>. BSS facilities are superb, with engineered wood floors and a lovely kitchen/cafeteria area.

There is lots of free parking, in the circular drive in front of the school, on neighbourhood streets, and in the BSS carpark off Russell Hill Road.

BSS is a beautiful 2-block walk, north from the Russell Hill stop on the St Clair West tramway.

Bishop Strachan School is at 298 Lonsdale Road, at the NE corner of Russell Hill and Lonsdale Ave.

Note: Entry to the November Monthly Dance is optionally part of your Workshop package.
The Monthly Dance is at Crescent School, 2365 Bayview Avenue <map>. (See What's On page for more info.)

Bishop Strachan School

Helen Russell

Ian Souter

Deirdre Maccuish Bark

Originally from north of Aberdeen in Scotland, I started highland dancing at age 7. At school I learnt SCD and as a teen joined the Aberdeen Branch demo team. I later taught the Aberdeen University group and coached them for festivals and competitions throughout Scotland.

At RSCDS Summer School at St Andrews in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s I was taught by Miss Milligan. I obtained my Teachers’ Certificate in 1971. Since then I have taught wherever I have lived, from Aberdeen to Australia. In England, I taught York and North Humberside Branch and neighbouring Branches.
I have delivered workshops, day schools, week-end courses and teaching skills courses in the UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. I have a particular interest in developing teaching skills courses, teachers’ workshops, and candidate tutoring. I am always delighted to adjudicate at children’s festivals. Since the late 1990s I have attended St Andrews Summer School every year as a student or a member of staff.

At St Andrews, I taught Highland, Ladies Step, Inter-mediate SCD, Very Advanced SCD, Mentor training, Basic SCD teaching skills, Pre-candidate courses and Tutoring for the Teaching Certificate.

I am Convenor of the RSCDS Manual working group, producing the new RSCDS Manual of SCD; I chair the RSCDS Curriculum for Excellence group; and I was involved in the final editing of RSCDS’ An Introduction to Warming Up and Cooling Down for Scottish Country Dancing, The Second Graded Book, and The St Andrews Collection of Step Dances.

I was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1950 and came to Canada shortly afterwards. I started dancing in Hamilton at the age of sixteen. My first big event was the Centennial Ball in 1967.

I found myself in competition in and around the Toronto and Hamilton areas during the next few years. The teenage team called “A Lad and his Lassies” went on to win first place gold medals.

I attained my full teaching certificate in 1971 with Miss Milligan as examiner. For the next few years I taught one of the children’s classes in Hamilton.

Circumstances then took us away from dancing for some twenty-nine years. Our daughter’s “Scottish Wedding” in 1999 brought us back to dancing again.

Since then I have held various executive positions including Chairman, Hamilton Branch, and Director of Summer School and Chairman of T.A.C. I have taught the “Blair” class in Cambridge for the past nine years. I have also taught workshops in Edmonton, Ottawa, Kingston, Windsor, London, Burlington, Gravenhurst, Kitchener/Waterloo, St. Catharines the West End Workshop, and Stoney Lake, Peterborough.

I am delighted to have been asked again to teach this workshop when scheduling problems prevented it in the past. Now that I am retired, I look forward to seeing everyone in Toronto.

I was born in Scotland, growing up in the Highland Capital of Inverness where I started Scottish Country Dancing through the Girl Guides movement. I had to resort to Ceilidh Dancing while at boarding School in Edinburgh but as a Primary School Teacher in Midlothian, I ended up teaching everything — including Gym and some basic country and ceilidh dances to my classes.

However, it was not until we, as a family, immigrated to Canada, and our children were older, that I returned to Country Dancing. Since 1979, I have spent a great deal of time dancing in classes, demonstration teams, workshops, and also teaching.

I obtained my Teachers’ Certificate in April 2001, under the tuition of Jean Noble. I currently teach two classes a week in the Toronto area. I have taught both Level 1 and Level 3 Toronto Association, in addition to teaching workshops elsewhere in Canada and the United States.

I am on T.A.C. executive committee where I am responsible for organizing the North American Examination Tours, as well as the residential Summer School Candidate classes.

I have served on the board of the RSCDS Toronto Association, most recently as Director of Special Events. I continue to serve on several committees, and I am coordinator of the Toronto Demo Pool.

I have loved Scottish country dance since I was 12 years old and I strive to communicate that love to others.

Toronto Workshop Registration Form Click here to open or download the Workshop Registration Form in Acrobat format. (Get the free Adobe Acrobat Reader here. Version 9 is required.) IMPORTANT: Save the Registration Form to your computer desktop, or Documents folder. Then. . . open it with Adobe Reader. You have various options with the Registration Form: 1/ Print the form, fill it in manually (please write clearly), and mail it with your cheque via Canada Post. Or. . . 2/ Enter your information electronically by typing into the blanks in the Acrobat form. Then save and email the form and pay electronically via PAYPAL (a link is provided on the form). Option 2 requires you to have (or establish) a PAYPAL account. For more detailed instructions click this link.