History

History of ECCDS

Scottish Country dancing in Edmonton had its roots around 1958 with the St. John’s group, which danced at St. John’s Anglican Church in south side Edmonton. The Alberta Scottish Dance Club, a non-profit society was established, in 1962.

In 1969, Jeff Weston and Peter Barton, two of those early dancers, decided to start a teaching group at the University of Alberta, where they both were teaching. The club was somewhat unique among SCD groups in that almost all members, being university students, were in their late teens and early twenties.

The club’s very first workshop was held in the fall of 1970 in the Dinwoodie Lounge. Weekly classes were generally held in the Central Academic Building (CAB) and socials in the Newman Centre at St. Joseph’s College. The club also hosted an annual ball in April at places such as the Holiday Inn.

As students, it appears that food was a big motivator. Horst Schmid, then Minister of Culture, owned the Haufbrau House and if the group went there and entertained, they got a free meal. No haggis, but lots of schnitzel! Performing at the Burns’ Dinner at the Faculty Club also earned dancers a dinner. Alberta Culture paid for a group of dancers to travel to Spokane for the World’s Fair in November of 1974.

Peter and Jeff had left Canada in 1977, and Louise (well, she had taught Highland Dancing, hadn’t she?) became the “teacher”. She very quickly learned that she needed to get some teacher training and did her preliminary teaching certificate in 1979 and her full certificate in 1980.

In the late 1970’s and for many years following, a workshop was held at the Banff Springs Hotel on the Thanksgiving weekend. It was an excellent location, despite the stone floors which tended to result in very sore feet at the end of the weekend. The U of A dancers all travelled together to Banff and had wonderful weekends there.

Also, in 1979, the Society performed with the White Heather Show at the Jubilee Auditorium in October. Four men and seven women so the men danced both nights and Mary Knight won the draw for her to dance both nights.

So, about that “reducing costs” thing. In 1980 the workshop was held in the lower level of the Jubilee Auditorium, and the ball meal was self catered. The Society ended up with money in the bank but those at the end of the line were not thrilled with having only coleslaw and potatoes for supper!

Also, in 1980 there were thoughts of becoming stars! Reed Leisure Library, a video company, was making a video library of recreational pursuits and hired the Society to do a video of SCD. Each dancer got $25 for our efforts. But the company never did finish the project. So somewhere there is some great footage of some fabulous dancing (by very young-looking people), but never seen.

In September 1981 the Society moved to Garneau Community Centre where one class danced on carpet and the aerobics instructor in another room inviting music volume competitions. The Society was no longer a university club (having been kicked off campus because there were too many non-student members). So, in 1982 the name was changed to the Edmonton Caledonian Country Dance Society (ECCDS).

In the fall of 1982, the Society moved to Christchurch Anglican church and entered the food years. With a fully equipped kitchen right there, the evening social became a full meal deal with folks signing up to provide the snack and trying to outdo each other in culinary skills. Those years were also characterized by parts of the floor starting to give, leaks, and the occasional practice when the music had to be turned off for a funeral upstairs.

In 1983 the club hosted its second Macdonald Hotel Workshop and Ball. Being just a bit older and a lot smarter the Society actually made money.

In 1984 and 1985 a candidate class in Edmonton was sponsored and in the spring of 1985 four new teachers were welcomed to the fold − Heather Jenkins, Bob Wardell, Pat Wankiewicz and Joanne Graham. The Scottish examiners were taken to Super Rodeo (professional rodeo) on the weekend and they were gob-smacked! Apparently at every centre around North America where they examined after ECCDS, they raved about their amazing experience in Edmonton. Good thing they were also impressed them with our teaching ability!

In 1986 the band Schiehallion was unable to get to Edmonton because of snow and there was a quick move to taped music for the Ball at the Polish Hall. Throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s the Workshop and Ball was held variously at the Polish Hall, the Garrison club, the Lion’s Centre and the Free Masons’ Hall.

In September 1990 classes were moved to the Lions’ Senior Citizens’ Centre − at last, three separate rooms!

In 1995 a children’s class was started. A stage had been reached where children of some of those original dancers had reached an age where they could start to dance. And what a wonderful class they were. In addition to being exposed to SCD from infancy, most of them also played musical instruments. We had no idea how special they were − learning reels, jigs AND strathspeys well enough to perform both types of dances at their first February workshop ceilidh. Subsequent children’s classes showed us how quickly children usually learned SCD!

Also, in 1995 stardom was once again offered − well, sort of. Access IV had the dancers perform a couple of videos on how to do Scottish Country dancing. That footage is still around and it is great to see all the young dancers, a few still dancing with Edmonton Caledonian.

Teaching ranks swelled when Irene Townshend did her preliminary certificate in 1996 and full teacher’s certification 1998; Heather Jenkins full certificate in 1998, and Barbara Johnston did her preliminary in 1998 (and full certificate in 2000). Monty had got his full certificate in 1995.

The annual Workshop and Ball were held at the Hotel Macdonald from 1995 to 2005and after at the Sutton Place Hotel. Used to being “kicked out” of places because of noise or membership, the Society was kicked out of the Mac because they could make a lot more money on Sunday brunch in the ballroom than they could make from us!

Demos for the Festival of Trees began in 2001 combining the adult demo group and child dancers. Throughout this decade there was a fairly robust demo schedule with the adults, often joined by the children, performing at Festival of Trees, Fort Edmonton Highland Games, and Rutherford House Robbie Burns celebration. There were also performances at seniors’ lodges and at various Canada day events.

In 2005 the demo group performed at the Legislature Grounds for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on their royal tour. They were even then placed in the royal receiving line! None got to shake the Queen’s hand, but were only three feet away − magical. The club even received a $500 honorarium for a four-and-a-half-minute performance.

In December 2009, Louise, Pat, Bernadette Thill and a few hardy souls from the children’s class (it was, after all, minus 35 degrees) devised a wee dance that has since gone around the world and been performed by children’s groups as far away as New Zealand. The Scottish Snowman is now a staple on Christmas programs in Edmonton.

During this decade, the Lions’ Centre underwent major renovations and our group began a brief nomadic period – travelling around the city from Queen Alexandra School on the south side to Kildare School on the north side (one of our members was a teacher there and got us a deal). It was a challenging time for our membership but amazingly, folks hung in – and when we returned to the Lions’ Centre we were back to full force.

In 2011, the inimitable Bobby Brown and his band, the Scottish Accent performed for our Ball for the second time (the first was 2009). The Ball was recorded and became a major part of his final recording, the CD “Are You Ready? Well, Here We Go”.

In 2011, club member Kristen Jennings was awarded an RSCDS scholarship to attend summer school in St. Andrews.

The “Edmonton girls” became rather famous for the Ceilidh items they would put on, at our workshop, at TAC Summer School and at other workshops.

In 2014, Irene’s dance A Summer Meeting, which was devised to celebrate TAC’s 50th anniversary, was published in the RSCDS Book 48 − wow − what an honour!

June 2015 was an exciting time for several of our adult and child dancers. A gala show was put on at the Provincial Museum with Metis, First Nations and French dancers. Each group danced separately and then we all danced together, demonstrating how are dance types borrowed from each other.

Most Scottish Country Dance groups will tell you that the cost of facilities to hold classes is a major challenge. That challenge hit the Caledonian group in 2017, when the decision was made to move classes from the Lions’ Senior Centre (growing increasingly costly) to the Westmount Fitness Centre. The Society has happily been there since offering an afternoon class as well as the evening class.

Over the years, dancers from Edmonton have been keen supporters of the Scottish Country Dance Teachers’ Association (Canada) (TAC’s) annual Summer School. Edmonton based attendees usually could be counted on for ceilidh items and really getting into the spirit of the event.

In July 2019 many of the branch’s members travelled to Calgary to participate in the Summer School hosted by TAC. By far the highlight of that summer school was that our own Bronwen Taylor, who started dancing as a seven-year-old in our children’s class, was the Bob Blackie Scholar. The scholarship is awarded annually (to cover the costs of summer school) to a dancer who has a genuine love of SCD, a commitment to maintaining the best of SCD, and a desire to improve their skills. There were several highly qualified candidates in 2019 but we were all very pleased that Bronwen was the obvious choice.