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Letter to the editor: The end of an era at the Gaelic College

To the editor:

In an era when family values, morals, tradition and culture are questioned daily by popular media and outside exposure, it is shocking to see yet another important event for the youth of our community being cut. The annual Gaelic College Highland Dance Competition is one of the longest standing Highland Dance competitions in Canada. For this reason alone, it is a very important part of the history of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Canada. It is also important to our Cape Breton dancers as an event for these locals to perform for their families and their community without, once again, having to leave the Island. This competition attracts dancers from all over Canada, many of which have relatives in Cape Breton, and plan their summer vacations around the competition.

This past Fall, the Gaelic College elected a new administration which included a new Executive Director and Director of Education. Under this administration, there will be a change in focus at the College, moving more towards the Gaelic language and only ‘non’ competitive studies. There will no longer be study in the Great Highland Bagpipe (only Cape Breton style piping), no Pipeband Drumming, etc. Eventually, they hope to fade out one of the College’s longest standing areas of study, Highland Dance.

The Gaelic College began in 1938 as a Gaelic institution, at a time when Gaelic was a central part of Cape Breton communities–spoken at home and in school. Years later, Highland Dance and Bagpiping were added to the curriculum due to their ties with the language, culture and music, and they have continued through its history. Step Dance and Fiddle were not added to the program until many years later–the early ’80s. I have no issue with a Gaelic focus, I think it’s wonderful. My Dad’s family is from Inverness and spoke Gaelic in their home, and my daughter is studying Gaelic Song at the Gaelic College. My issue is with the disregard for other longstanding areas of study. If, back in the day, Gaelic College administration felt Highland Dance had strong enough ties to be one of the first evolving areas of study, why does the new administration feel it cannot be part of this tradition? Yes, the fiddle and step dance have been a large part of this culture, especially renewed in the past 20+ years, however, they were not original disciplines of study at the Gaelic College back when the Gaelic was center stage, yet Highland Dance was.

In early days, they also ran an annual Gaelic Mod that hosted competitions in Gaelic Song and Story, Highland Dance, and Pipebands. Through the years, the Mod has sadly become extinct, following along with so many events that have been lost to our Island. The Highland Dance Competition, however, has continued to run successfully since its inception. Due to the dedication and loyalty I have felt towards this event, the College’s traditions, and the local dancers, I have continued to organize this for the past 20 years with the support of the previous administrations and community volunteers. I run this purely on a volunteer basis, with no association as is the norm with other competitions.

So why would the Gaelic College pull this event? Their answer, aside from their new non-competitive view, is they don’t feel Highland Dance is connected in any way to the Gaelic Culture!!! I asked where they are getting their history and beliefs, and it was simply stated they just knew these things from being around the Gaelic lifestyle. This is very interesting. Certainly the dancing has changed over time, but it should still have a place in the culture, so it doesn’t get completely lost. Quoting a friend who has his Masters in Ethnochoreology (Traditional Dance Studies): “Both strands of the dance tradition (Highland & Step) should co-habit as they support and inform each other. Highland Flings have been danced to puirt a beul (mouth music) in Scotland for the past 50-60 years”…as have they been danced at the Gaelic College through mouth music in my younger years, and currently with my own students.

Healthy competition for youth has been a reason why many of these Celtic traditions have lasted through a time where media promotes a much more elaborate sense of living for youth. Competition allows young people to set goals, strive for improvement and share their skills with others. Isn’t this what our Gaelic/Cape Breton culture is about: families actually spending time together at community events full of tradition, culture and values? Not to mention the money that goes back in to our community’s economy when 100-200 dancers and their families spend the weekend dancing in Cape Breton (staying at our hotels, buying our gas, eating at our restaurants, shopping at our stores). I think maybe the administration may want to consider attending such an event before deciding its fate.

This is a disappointing loss to Highland Dance, which is a unique art form in many areas around the world. It is a great loss to our history and culture on the Island and within the Province, where Highland Dance competitions and Highland Games have been decreasing annually due to monetary reasons. Why can’t the Gaelic College pursue its ideals with the Gaelic Language, while still allowing the school portion of the institution to teach other just as relevant sectors of the culture? How is it that suddenly a few people get to decide what is a relevant part of tradition at the Gaelic College? If Highland Dance was relevant enough to be a starting new discipline way back in early Gaelic College days, why is it suddenly “not part of the culture”?

If our own Island, an Island that survives on our Celtic culture through tourism, and the Gaelic College, an institution promising to promote the local culture within our community, does not support Highland Dance… then who exactly will?

The Gaelic College is run overall by a Board of Governors. This Board makes all final decisions regarding the Gaelic College. If you would like to support the continuation of Highland Dance and the Dance Competition at the Gaelic College, please send any letters of support along to the Board Chairperson: Maureen Carroll maureen@mcarrollconsulting.ca.

Kelly MacAuthur
kelly@macarthurdance.com

Kelly MacArthur is the Director of the MacArthur School of Dance. She has been teaching Highland & Step Dance at the Gaelic College for the past 23 years. Kelly is the organizer of the GC Highland Dance Competition.

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Comments

  1. I know little about this issue but find myself wondering what the rationale for these cuts was. It would probably be useful, and likely less frustrating for everyone involved, if there was more context to these decisions. For instance, why the cuts from the people who made the cuts? What do the people currently in charge at the GC think about the role of highland dance and competitive piping going forward? Maybe a little clarification around these issues would make it seem less like an attack on specific disciplines, as has been inferred here.

    On the other hand, being a former highland dancer myself (although not a very good one!), I have very fond memories of competing at the Gaelic College. I have similar memories in places like Antigonish, Pictou, New Glascow, Pugwash, PEI, New Brunswick and beyond. In fact most of the commonwealth has a healthy community of highland dancers. Competitive piping is a similar worldwide phenomenon. Unfortunately, or perhaps for the better depending on your point of view, there are aspects of Cape Breton artistic tradition that and not represented elsewhere. If the GC has a role in preserving local traditions these should be the focus. I agree with Kelly that it is terrible to have to lose something in this situation, but agree with others in that this new direction, although painful, represents an important move in terms of cultural promotion and preservation. LIkely there are far more highland dancers worldwide than Gaelic speakers. Losing something like the language and unique dance forms is irreversible and I think that putting the resources here, although sad, is in the long run a wise move.

    • If this becomes the case, we all assume there are so many more avenues to pursue these aspects ~ such as HD ~ we could eventually loose our Highland Dance as what happened to the fiddle and step back in the day. It should all co-exist.

      In the article ~ the reasons you are asking were given. They simply believe (the 2 new admins and whoever is following) that they can only preserve the Gaelic Culture through what THEY believe is true Gaelic aspects…which includes Step Dance, Fiddle and Gaelic.

      There are also many grants to tap into which are designed for the preservation of the Gaelic. This is helpful to them.

  2. Gaelic College Mission Statement:
    "To promote, preserve and perpetuate through studies in all related areas – the culture, music, language, arts, crafts, customs and traditions of immigrants from the highlands of Scotland."
    ….
    ?

      • Nope! Common misconception. It may have been danced at the Highland Games, but most of the dances in this form were devised by lowland dancing masters in the 1790's, and, unlike stepdancing, were not brought over by the immigrants as a custom or tradition.

        If it said "To promote, preserve and perpetuate through studies in all related areas – the culture, music, language, arts, crafts, customs and traditions that have ever been in Scotland." I'd see the issue.

      • I know all this history. There is still a Highland influence, in the very old 'kept' steps. Lots has been lost, however, some has remained. Kind of like the Step Dance ;)

      • Regardless of its origins or influences, the fact that Highland Dance isn't a Highland immigrant tradition remains unresolved.

      • Who cares? What we now have in Cape Breton and call HIGHLAND DANCE is what we have accepted as traditional Highland Dance of Cape Breton. Let's say we started it in 1939, and it is our Cape Breton Highland Dance culture from that point on and into the future.

        THIS will be our new history when in thousands of years, people are then debating the even 'newer' or lost forms of what we have now.

      • The article includes more than highland dancing. The dancing is what Kelly is passionate about and had sparked these conversations. The artice also talks about no more study of the Highland bagpiping and only Cape Breton style.

      • Daibhidh MF: Stop telling everyone else that they're wrong and you're right. How insulting can you get. Scottish highland dancing has been part of the CB scene for many generations. Your own view is just that. Many others know what has happened in their lives, and the lives of their children and the generations preceding them.You're only trying to pick a fight to justify the changes are the GC. Your arguments are nonsense.

      • Okay Chris, since we're on a roll – I'm hoping this is my last comment..

        You're too much. Really. Tell him to stop saying he's right and people who oppose him are wrong… lol. Truly, this is the approach of a seven-year-old girl who has been told by her older brother that the Santa isn't real. "Stop saying you're right!"

        Just because you're insulted, doesn't mean the person who insulted you is wrong.

        Again, I'm not on either side of the discussion, but someone's got to call a spade a spade.

        Merry Christmas,
        Ewan

      • I agree with Chris. People aren't willing to really listen to Daibhidh MF because he is caustic and angry. He thinks he knows it all, and then he apologizes, and then he's back at it! There is a better way to present an argument. Right above ~ insultingly saying 'somehow Kelly… I don't think it will' to the fact that Highland Dance ~ like it or not ~ IS part of our history. His statement is both immature and unnecessary.

        I don't know much about Highland Dance really, and I have never attended a competition, so I choose to experience things in full before commenting.

      • Hey Sherri,

        Please note, charitably, that responses are not in chronological order, and because they have no time stamp, I can see how you are coming to certain conclusions about the way things have gone on. I have already explained myself countless times, and am getting tired of what is turning out to be like beating a dead horse.

        Ewan, I agree with you – the offence anyone takes from a claim doesn't make that claim any less true… but I still think people are allowed to express themselves when they're insulted, and I have no objection to that, and I can see where I might have been harsh at times in the discussion for reasons I've expressed so many times already. So, from now on, I'm going to assume that anyone who thinks I'm angry and caustic has not read the discussion in light of all that has happened, and I'm not going to respond, but anyone else is certainly free to do so.

      • "…the offence anyone takes from a claim doesn't make that claim any less true".

        Doesn't make any more true either.

        I don't think anyone objects to your views Daibhidh — which you have every right to hold and express — although not objecting doesn't mean agreement with the view. Its your tone and placing others' with opposing views as in the "wrong". Objections you've received are not due to people not understanding what you are saying.

      • Hey Chris, regardless of my tone, do you seriously think that the fact that I think I'm right (as you do, as *everyone else* does on this whole comment board) makes me wrong? Quite the paradox, don't you think? If I think I'm right, and you're wrong, then oh! I must be wrong! So, I have to think the other person is right so that I can be right.

        Beautiful logic. You think I should stop thinking I'm right and you're wrong, but you don't object to my views. What a tangled web we weave!

    • Thanks JanaG for pointing out the obvious. How sad to be seeing this picking of a fight for no reason other than to justify the proposed changes.

      People of CB and elsewhere need to rise up and say "no, it's not okay to make these changes at the GC."

  3. My maternal grandparents were born and raised in Cape Breton and my grandfather grew up speaking Gaelic. They lived in on St. Ann's Bay, just a stone's throw from the College. When my daughter began Highland dancing at age 5, nothing could have made them more proud. My daughter and I both take Cape Breton Step dance from a Cape Breton native living in Bridgewater, NS.

    My grandmother is as fiercely proud a Cape Bretoner as they come and even though she has dementia, grand-nanny always remembers to ask how Megan is doing in her dancing and expresses her delight that she's carrying on a tradition. (I think it redeems us in her view for not living in Cape Breton) We were looking forward to exploring our cultural roots through March Break and/or Summer Camp looking into language, weaving and other musical arts in addition to the dance programs. Without dance I don't think the college will have as much of a draw for me and my three children.

    I am deeply disappointed with the Board of Director's decision and hope for the sake of the College, local businesses and residents in the area that they don't live to regret it.

  4. Thank You Kelly for informing the public on this horrible decision! My children grew up Highland dancing and the Gaelic College was the ultimate summer destination! I hope the dancing population will voice their opinion on your comments and help preserve the heritage we have all loved and enjoyed with our Families. We now live in Edmonton , Alberta and still have the special memories of the dance summers and look forward to watching the talent that is displayed there on the stage!

  5. "Changes were needed at the College since its inception"? If, at the moment of its inception, changes were needed, then I suspect there's very little that can be done to rectify things at this point. Further, if Mr. Graham feels that history can be "fixed", he should perhaps re-visit the definition of history.

    • Ms. Gray, I must question your logic. Of course, even if change was needed since the College's inception, things CAN be done to rectify things at this point. The Gaelic College was in 1939, a new initiative. The director at the time chose to place emphasis on the more modern Scottish dances quite foreign to the locals who came predominantly from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The College's misplaced attempt to reinvent Cape Breton dance was but a minor symptom of an inappropriate, but well-documented, cultural colonialism that plagued Nova Scotia in this period. Perhaps I could have used a better word than "fix". Had I known my post was going to be scrutinized like it was a scholarly paper, I would have taken better care with my word choice. Let's just say I am in favour of trying to "reclaim", or perhaps more accurately, "re-emphasize" aspects of our culture that were/are in danger of being lost and/or replaced at one time because of some supposed inferiority attributed to them by so-called "improvers". I am all for diversity of disciplines. However, I am also open to change, and when change in this situation has to do with a "re-emphasis" or new emphasis on certain disciplines once ignored, I am all for it.

      • In doing so Glenn, they are allowing Highland Dance and Great Pipes (etc) to fall to the same fate as you feel the other sectors had years earlier. And, whether you like it or not, they HAVE become part of the traditions and ideals of the CB and GC culture for over 70 years…which gives them some clout.

        It's easy for you to say this as you are not losing YOUR sense of tradition. The difference with the rest of us writing in support of the dance and piping, is that we ARE willing to embrace all the sectors of the culture and live side by side. we don't want ours without yours ~

    • Actually, I think the man knows what he's talking about. I'm pretty sure I read it in his book.

      • Anyone cam write a book, can we stay on topic and speak productively? You are the only one commenting in a rude and catty manner. State your facts and be open and honest instead of disrespectful.

      • Sorry again Sarah, didn't intend disrespect – it was a comical observation I posted on impulse.

    • With all due respect,Ann< I think what Glenn is referring to here is not "fixing history" as such but rather righting what he perceives to be a rather romanticized misrepresentation of what the true history is going back to scotland as it existed when our forefathers left there . Witness,for example,the eurocectric approach taken in the presentations of Canadian History in school text books.I suspect what you value as a Cape Bretoner of Scottish extraction could be affected greatly by whether your ancestors were Highland or Lowland Scots.I think this discussion can be quite valuable if kept at the level of ideas and not personalities.

      Thanks

      Danny Graham

    • Ann Gray: Exactly. "Glenn Graham" is engaging in revisionist history, with a twist. He not only knows "what should have happened", he also "knows what should happen in future" to fix the errors that occurred. What hubris.

      He's used terms like "Cultural colonialism", "Reclaiming culture", "Hegemonic constructions" (another posting of Glenn's).

      Nobody need tell any CB'er about cultural colonialism! And no Cb'er wants another form of cultural colonialism imposed in the name of cultural "purity"! Add to, but keep the GC's rich traditions and core intact.

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