Jean Dodds                                     Linden Park, AUS

Ruth Jappy                                                    Delta, BC

I grew up with Irish music & dance - especially accordions, having a father and brother who both played.   So it is no wonder I married Alex Jappy, a well-known Scottish accordionist.   I have had the pleasure of teaching workshops in Canada,  United States,  Australia  & Japan  and also the  T.A.C. Summer School.

I have taught, and Alex has played for the Delta Borderers SCD Class in Vancouver, for over 30 years and  we have also taught a weekly  Old Time Dance class for over 20 years.

Music & Dance/Dance & Music -  I love them both

These two ingredients cannot be separated and together they become a universal language that bridges many boundaries.

Happy Dancing,   Ruth

David Queen                                        Southport, UK

I come from a very musical family and started dancing at 5 years of age under the influence of my father who was a piper and dance teacher best known for devising the dance Angus MacLeod. I qualified as a teacher of Scottish Country Dance in 1993 and I hope that this has enabled me to inspire a love of music and dance in others.

I teach regular branch classes in the north of England and workshops around the UK and have been a member of staff at the RSCDS Summer School in St Andrews for the last eight years. I have also been very fortunate to receive invitations to teach around the world in such diverse locations as New Zealand, Russia, USA, Canada and across Europe.

In addition to teaching, I am a dance deviser and composer of Scottish music and have published my own book of dances as well as providing dances for other publications. My music has been recorded by a number of Scottish dance bands including my own.

I enjoy promoting good technique and derive a great deal of satisfaction from seeing dances performed to a high standard. My classes seek to help all abilities of dancer to achieve their own personal best whilst ensuring that they have fun!

Scottish dance has been an important part of my life since childhood and I now enjoy seeing my own children building the friendships that are such an important part of the social aspect of dance. Having been made so very welcome in Canada and the USA in recent years, I am especially looking forward to teaching at TAC.

Gary Thomas                                     Santa Rosa, CA

Dancing has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. It all started in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with a lady who traveled from park to park with her little record player and stack of records that included children’s stories and dance music. Suddenly, we were no longer children, but fierce tigers or magic elves, or pioneers dancing the Virginia Reel. I was hooked and became an avid Square Dancer and tap dancer.

Over the years, other forms of dance were added to the repertoire, and I was able to put this knowledge to good use as a choreographer for musical theatre. In 1977, on moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota, Scottish Country Dancing became the “new” craze for me. What a wonderful community to be invited into. My teaching certificate soon followed and I’ve been teaching ever since. A new direction followed my exodus to California, however, when I started playing piano for classes. But that’s another story. (Ask me about the Czech  Republic.)

Most of my teaching is local, although I have taught workshops in other states, as well as Canada, including TAC Summer School. I also teach English Country Dance and Vintage Dance, which includes Regency, Victorian, and Ragtime era ballroom dancing. I recently added Baroque to the list, but I’m still a pupil. Isn’t that what life is about, though? Always learning something new.

“Some beat the earth with joyous feet while others chant the tune.”                                                                                       Aeneid

Ron Wallace                                       Santa Rosa, CA

Just after the turn of the twentieth century, Ron Wallace's great uncle established a Scottish performance group, the CampMor Kilties (for Clans Campbell and Morgan) in southern Minnesota. Over the years, two aunts, three uncles, two cousins, parents, both sisters and brother performed in the CampMor Kilties as either pipers, drummers, drum majors, or dancers. Ron's parents met there and Scottish music and dance have remained a significant part of his life. His father was the drum major, his mother danced and taught highland, and both his parents were country dancers.

The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS) and the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing (SOBHD) were not known in rural Minnesota. Therefore, the Scottish scene remained relatively unchanged until the 1960's when standardization and conformance were expected and to a degree embraced.

With older sister as teacher, Ron, at age 12, started playing bagpipes. Piping responsibilities soon included pipe sergeant of the CampMor Kilties, then on to pipe major of two bands over 10 years, one of which was a very successful competitive band. Pipe students remain part of his weekly teaching responsibilities.

After 43 years of teaching and 53 years of performing, Ron sees an ever increasing need to explore the "traditional" as well as the "contemporary" aspects of Scottish arts. To that end, he is in the process of establishing a non-profit (US) to support research, performance, training and publication of dance related material.

Ron's teaching spans all ages and levels, and averages 500 classes a year locally and abroad. His workshops include quite a variety of subjects: Scottish Country, Highland, Step, English, Welsh, Cape Breton Step and teachers seminars.

Through a selection process, he has tutored candidates (potential teachers) in the Twin Cities Branch (Minnesota) as well as in the San Francisco Branch. He recently became an examiner for the RSCDS and has already examined in Canada, U.S.A. and Scotland.

The Santa Rosa Scottish Dancers (founded by Mr. Wallace) and the Dunsmuir Scottish Dancers (a San Francisco Branch demonstration team) give numerous performances allowing Ron, as artistic director, the opportunity of combining many forms and periods of Scottish dance with complimentary costuming representing 16th, 18th and 20th Century stylings.

At home in Northern California, Ron is kept busy with weekly classes in Country, Highland and Step dance and Highland Bagpipes, playing descant recorder and pipes in a local Scottish Country Dance Band “Hood, Wink and Swagger” who can be heard on the CD Dancers Dream.