Kate danced as a child in Northumberland, and then started attending regular classes as a student in Cambridge. She danced in London for several years, dancing with the London demonstration team and meeting her husband at social dancing at the Church of Scotland. After returning to Cambridge, she took her teaching certificate in 1997 with Susan Nedderman in Cambridge and now teaches the class that she learned with.

She has taught in Cambridge for over 25 years, at various levels with both the RSCDS branch and the university, including teaching for the Dancing Achievement Award.

More recently, she has organised teams from Cambridge for an annual dance festival/competition in Newcastle, which has been particularly valuable in giving students the opportunity to dance to an extremely high standard.

She also learned step dancing from Susan and ran a weekly Zoom step class throughout lockdown. She has taught both country dancing and step dancing at St Andrews and day schools, from beginners through to advanced. She particularly enjoys encouraging people to develop both their technique and their social dancing skills through a combination of old and new dances.

Having started dancing as a teenager, I have now clocked up more than 50 years of strathspeys, reels and jigs.  I started dancing at Te Awamutu, and over the years danced at most clubs in the Waikato (Hamilton Scottish, Lochiel, Huntly, Tokoroa, Taumarunui) before moving to Auckland about 25 years ago.

I gained my teacher’s certificate in 1982, but most of my teaching has been in the last 25 years.  Many thanks to Esther Mackay at Waitemata, who gave me the opportunity to teach alongside her – and I learnt plenty!

Highlights in my teaching career include teaching four sets in a Senior JAM class at a Summer School; having a lot of fun with an Advanced Low Impact class, again at a Summer School;  and watching a young dancer who I taught as a very shy 7 year old gain her Gold Bar Medal.

I have attended at least 20 Summer Schools in New Zealand, and have lost count of the weekend and day schools.  In addition, I have danced at two TAC schools in Canada, three winter schools in Australia, and made it to St Andrews Summer School twice.  (That was an experience, as a newly qualified teacher, I was in a class with all those experienced teachers who I knew by name and reputation)

In recent years, I have also played fiddle for dancing in the Waikato-based band, Bourach Mor. I now look forward to the challenge of passing on my knowledge to the next generation of Scottish
Country Dance teachers in New Zealand, working with them in a collaborative way so they can achieve their potential.

Born to Scottish parents I have both a love of Scotland and a passion for teaching. I was introduced to Scottish Country Dancing at the age of 9 when my mother took me to dance at Linden Club. I took up a career in teaching and went on to gain my Dancing Teacher’s Certificate in 1981, while teaching the children’s class at Linden. After gaining my certificate, I taught at Plimmerton Club and during this time married Malcolm in 1986. We both attended numerous Summer and weekend schools together.

I have tutored classes at a number of Day Schools and Weekend Schools. I have been a tutor for Junior Classes as well as a club tutor at Lower Hutt for many years.

I have taught at many NZ Summer Schools and have had the privilege of having Kitty McLauchlan, Muriel Johnstone and Catherine Fraser play for my classes.

Recently, I have taken Region classes and Beginner Classes for our new club members. I am currently dancing at Lower Hutt.

Outside dancing, I’m an avid crafter especially patchwork and knitting, as well as gardening. I belong to Knox Church and I am involved in a number of community activities. I look forward to meeting you at the Wellington Summer School.