Memories of Our Trip to the Windsor Ontario Winter Scottish Arts School |
The dancers were starving when we got in, so we found the local pizza joint and fed the wee beasties! Good pizza by the way! Some felt they should get more than others.... |
On February 6th, 2004, 6 daring people took a very long, long trip away from home to get some of the best highland dance instruction available in the province of Ontario. JoAnn, Marnie, Josee, Jackie, Susan and Ashley travelled from Timmins, Ontario to Windsor Ontario, (a 14-hr trip) to attend the Windsor Police Pipe Band's very first Windsor Ontario Winter Scottish Arts School (W.O.W.) The trip began at 5:55 a.m. when the group left Timmins, and arrived in Windsor at 8 p.m. Against all warnings of a terrible winter storm, the group made it through. There were flurries around North Bay, that was it. Hmmm, we wondered if maybe the southern part of the province had never seen a real storm, like the kind we get in Timmins! |
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Day One - Warm Up, Highland Fling, Sword Dance with Christie Freestone |
Mrs. Freestone gave a wonderful lecture about the learning process and excellent ideas on how a dancer can improve their skills. Her experience as a dancer, educator and dance instructor shone through and motivated the group from Timmins. I don't think I've ever seen them work as hard to improve technique! |
Anne Milne, previous world champion, and dance instructor was there as well to review the nationals with all the dancers. The girls were fortunate that they'd had Anne as a teacher at the Kingston Summer School of Scottish Arts a few years ago. The dancers from Timmins have no excuse not to use what she taught...she's coming up for our own workshop and testing in June! Practice girls, practice! |
Peter Archibald is a member of the Scottish Dance Teacher's Alliance, past champion dancer, and runner up at Cowal in 1993. Peter worked, very patiently with the dancers who were learning the strathspey & highland reel for the first time. It was a great review for the older girls. The two younger ones did the strathspey almost all night at the ceilidh! |
A Ceilidh We Will Go! |
We were so pleased that the pipe band hosted a ceilidh. They had a great little traditional celtic group playing. I believe the name was the Diggers. And the pipe band was incredible. So many pipers in one room! Our wee dancers strathspeyed to everything they could. Here's a few shots below: |
Day Two - Faults & Fixes, with Mrs. Freestone, Seann Truibhas with Anne Milne |
Mrs. Freestone reviewed some of the techniques taught the day before, with a little more emphasis on the Seann Truibhas to prepare us for Anne's class. You know you're from Timmins when...you bring your shovel...right Jackie? Jackie has promised to point from now on. ( When you flex your foot during the brushes, it looks like you're shovelling) We regretfully had to miss the Step Class that Anne was going to teach. After all it was a long way home to Timmins. The Long Road Home After a nearly uneventful ride back (detoured around Gravenhurst), we made it in good time. Eating in the van to save time. We rolled in at about 12:45. JoAnn dropped the sleepy Ashley off, and then Marnie and her two girls. As they were unloading the van at Marnie's, the lovely City of Timmins snowplow came by and buried the exit to the drive. A two foot bank of ice and snow blocked their way out. After 12 hours on the road, neither mom was in any shape to shovel...so a very comical Marnie chased the plow down (thank goodness they move slow), and he sent the sidewalk plow to get them out. Thank you to the nightshift snowremoval crew that worked on Sunday night! Yes, we are going next year! Thanks Sara for sending us all the info. We had a splendid time! |
One minute before arriving back home....shhhhhhh. |
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