A Brief History of The Blair Scottish Country Dancers

 

The Blair Scottish Country Dancers have been a social dance group in the Cambridge area for almost 40 years. In 1980, a core group of excellent dancers in the region determined they would like to add to the dancing opportunites in the region and enable local dancing in the city of Cambridge. Enabling more dancing, and the ability to dance without travelling to neighbouring cities, the Blair Scottish Country Dancers was born.

 

 

The original members of the group included: Barbara McWhinnie, Jean Stolworthy, Phyllis Haack, Claudette Miller (Yes, the first Mayor of Cambridge, and incidently at the time, the youngest Mayor in the Country), Moraig Waite, Judy Motts (Teacher of the group at that time), and Effie Ritchie.  Two of the founding members still dance today!

The group has had a number of teachers over the years. In the earlier years of the group the practice was to have teachers serve a period of 4 years and a new teacher take on responsibility for guiding the class. This unique photo captures an event celebrating 20 years of dancing for the group in which 5 of the group's teachers were all in the same hall. The opportunity to capture a photo of them couldn't be missed! 

 From Left to Right: Elizabeth Nurse, Nadine Gingerich, Andy Fallas, Judy Motts, and Gene MacKinnon.

We continue to collect history and images form the earlier period of the groups, and as more becomes available, we'll put the details here! If you have details or photos of our history - let us know! 

The Blair Scotttish Country Dancers celebrates 40 years in 2020  - It is clear that this group has continued for so long because it is a great social form of dancing and a great group of people!