Dance Teachers
Bruce Hamilton, Menlo Park, CA
I started folk dancing in the mid-60s at Swarthmore College, and began teaching when I got home to San Diego and found that nobody knew the dances I liked. In grad school I actually got paid as a TA to teach folk dance! I was one of the founding teachers of he San Diego Branch, and when I moved to the Bay Area I taught the San Jose class. I later helped my wife, Jo, start the Mountain View Scottish class. I've taught workshops all across North America, and taught candidates several times.
I enjoy workshops because people are willing to explore, both in new territory and old. Lately I've been trying to tie together country dancing's many parts -- music, choreography, body mechanics, and the social and mental aspects. I don't teach many new dances or complex ones, but instead focus on skills that apply across all dances.
I've taught English country dancing for the same length of time, and am currently President of the Country Dance and Song Society. I was a research computer scientist at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, but am now retired.
Linda Henderson, Alamo, CA
Linda is from North Berwick, a small coastal town east of Edinburgh. Like all Scottish children, her introduction to Scottish Country Dancing was at the school. She began Highland Dancing lessons at the age of seven and was a regular competitor at Highland Games and Championships. She received her RSCDS Teaching Certificate at St. Andrews.
Linda grew up in a musical household. Her father played accordion and she played piano. Participation at local Accordion & Fiddle Clubs gave her the opportunity to learn from some of the best SCD musicians around.
Janet Walker, Pittsburgh, PA
I met Scottish Country Dancing as a youngster at Radlett Preparatory School in England but didn't find it again until graduate school in Philadelphia, where, trying to study one night, I was distracted and attracted by the insistent sound of an accordion in a nearby building. Curious, I dropped the books and found Duncan Keppie running a "dancie" class and joined right in. Since then I've been with the Pittsburgh group, teaching there for the past 15 years and working with the demo team at local events, including the Ligonier Highland Games.
I've had wonderful experiences dancing and teaching at many workshops and since 2000 have attended and now teach at Thistle School in North Carolina. I've edited TACTalk and have taught the Bob Campbell Teachers' Class at the TAC Summer School.
As a recently retired professor of French at Chatham University, I have incorporated SCD into the wellness curriculum there, where I hope it will continue to draw students as it did me. For me, the dance is the greatest natural expression of the joy of physical life.
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