Biography of Miss Joan Kirk: her teaching career and early i...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1982.107-108*
Original Tape ID
Summary
Biography of Miss Joan Kirk: her teaching career and early involvement with the Scottish Country Dance Society.
Miss Joan Kirk attended Dunfermline High School, where she learned the eightsome reel, the Circassian Circle, etc., but she didn't know that these were Scottish country dances. She first encountered the dance Petronella much later when she had an evening class of mill girls at Butterburn. After leaving school Miss Kirk trained [from 1913-15] as a gym teacher at Dunfermline College of Physical Education, where she learned English folk dancing, but no Scottish country dancing. When she left college she went to work in Berwickshire. It was a man's post, but the man was away at the war. She then came to Dundee and taught at various schools.
She attended a country dancing course in Glasgow run by Miss Milligan in about 1923, and joined the Scottish Country Dance Society. As a committee member of the Women's Educational Union, she put country dancing on the WEU programme. Miss Milligan came to teach it, and it was such a success that a regular class was started in Dundee. George Mechan mentions a meeting in Mather's Hotel at which the Dundee branch of the society was instituted. Miss Kirk trained as a teacher of Scottish country dancing.
Item Subject/Person
Kirk, Miss Joan
Recording Location
County - Perthshire
Parish - Moulin
Village/Place - Pitlochry
Language
English
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good