Before attending public school, I learned to dance in a private dance school class. The principal was Ms. Brenda Roberts, and classes were held in a community hall in Bankstown, NSW, Australia. I was four years old and quite shy, and my mother thought learning to dance would help me prepare for going to public school.
My dance class was held on a Saturday morning, and at first, my lessons were short. The form of dancing taught was Scottish Highland Dancing, and the first movement I learnt was to stand in first position. The photograph is of me in the backyard of my home, where I lived with my parents and younger brother.
We referred to our teacher as Miss Brenda, and she was kind and patient. I really enjoyed her classes. The style of dance we learned was lively, and the music was played on a record player. Some days, a piper would join us in class, and we would dance to live bagpipe music. This was a lot of fun, and to this day, the sound of lively bagpipe music makes me tap my feet to the rhythm.
The first complete dance I learned was the Highland Fling. This dance involves hopping in place while shifting weight from one leg to the other. Miss Brenda would draw a circle on the floor with chalk, and our goal was to stay within that circle while we performed the fling. She provided individual corrections to our dancing and was very particular about tempo and rhythm. I enjoyed these dance classes, and through them, I learned to appreciate music as well.
Many years later, I can recall all the steps I learned over the years that were added to those few basic steps from my first dance lessons. I will write more about this in a future newsletter.
I stayed at that dance school until Miss Brenda married and moved to New Guinea with her husband. Afterwards, I only attended dance classes once my friend Bronwyn started attending classes at a different school.
