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Scottish Country Dancing -- Celtic Tap -- Zombies -- Princess Bride Collection

My Dancing Career

I took tap for one year when I was 5 years old. I loved it.
Once I got out on my own, after graduating from college
and ending a poor marriage, I started tap classes again in 1980.

In 1983 I auditioned for a newly formed Tap Company, Austin on Tap and toured with them as a professional tap dancer for three years. After retiring, I continued dancing, trying new kinds of dance as well as keeping up with tap.
I took 2 years of Irish dance (hard-shoe and soft shoe), some modern, some ballet, etc.

It wasn't until 1996 that I found Scottish Country Dancing. I also found out that there are Scottish hard-shoe step dances! In 1999 I collaborated to start a hard-shoe class for Scottish Country Dancers in Austin, that continued until 2002. After 8 years of Scottish Country Dance training, including all the workshops I could get to, and moving to the Pacific Northwest, I started training to become a teacher in 2004. I was awarded the Preliminary Certificate in 2005, and as of spring of 2007, I hold a Full Certificate for Scottish Country Dance teaching. I've actually been teaching classes since 2004. My first experiences with teaching workshops were in Lethbridge, Alberta in early 2008, and in Austin, Texas later that spring.

Meanwhile, in 2005 I was introduced to Cape Breton Dancing. This is a hard-shoe style of dancing that was preserved by the Scots who moved to and were fairly isolated on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. In 2006, I started a hard-shoe class for Scottish Country Dancers in Vancouver, WA. Over the past two years this has developed into what I call Celtic Tap. Celtic Tap is a blending of Cape Breton, Scottish and Irish Hardshoe, and American Tap. The original class started in 2006, and a new batch of beginners started in Fall of 2008, through Vancouver Parks and Rec.