Heather Jolley: An Extraordinary Highland Dance Teacher
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HEATHER JOLLEY at her store Tartantown in Coquitlam, B.C.
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By CATHOLINE BUTLER
COQUITLAM - Heather Jolley has been dancing and teaching Highland dancing for the past 50 years but many readers may be surprised to learn that ballet is actually her first love and this has been her inspiration when she choreographs Highland dances for the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band concerts.
"I read every ballet magazine and book published," said Jolley. "To be a really good ballet dancer you need that dedication and I'm not saying that Highland dancing doesn't take dedication, but ballet is even more so.
"If I knew then what I know now: that five years of your life is really not a very long time, then I would have studied ballet. But, when you're 17-years-old and thinking of spending five years of your life training and not making any money, then things look a little different.
"I've watched people that I danced with making wonderful careers in ballet and it has been interesting to follow their careers. I danced with Lynn Seymour in the high school dance festivals in Point Grey and she went on to dance with the Royal Ballet in London where she was a brilliant star for many years."
Heather Jolley said that she kind of fell into Highland dancing and then teaching. Her mother Adeline Duncan taught Highland dancing in Victoria for 60 years, with Heather being one of her students.
"My father was a piper," she recalls. "He was a pipe major with the Canadian Scottish Regiment during the war and he was also very involved in all things Scottish. So, I could hardly avoid being involved in the culture."
Jolley laughed as she told me about her travels with her mother to attend Highland dancing competitions. "I can remember travelling three times by bus across the United States when I was quite young because, of course, at that time you didn't fly. That was considered a huge undertaking.
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HEATHER JOLLEY in 1955 as she is presented with another trophy.
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"Even going to Scotland then wouldn't be like it is today. Nor is it the huge expense that it was at one time. Now many people fly back and forth all the time."
Heather met her husband in Ottawa, Ontario, where she was attending a Highland dancing competition and it wasn't until she was married that she started to teach dancing.
Her husband was a physics instructor with the armed forces and he taught at the military colleges, so they moved from Ottawa to Montreal to Winnipeg, and then to Vancouver. In each of these locations Heather taught dancing, but it wasn't until they moved to Vancouver that she became a full-time dance teacher.
Heather Jolley has certainly blazed her own trail in Highland dancing, winning so many championship cups and trophys that she has lost track of many of them.
One of her latest recognitions was to receive the coveted Atholl Clasp from Scotland. The Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing and their committee determine who will receive this award. The clasp was designed to be an honour given to people who made outstanding worldwide contributions to Highland dancing.
"The clasp has only been given out about six times," said Jolley, "and my mother and I are the only two Canadians to have received the Atholl Clasp. The other recipents were all Scottish. It's a very pretty silver clasp, all engraved and designed by a well-known jeweler in Scotland."
Heather Jolley is still teaching and grooming championship Highland dancers. Just this past August, her student Fiona Lee won the 2007 Junior World Highland Dancing Championship in Scotland.
Heather has 70 students and teaches at the St. Laurence Church Hall and the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam.
Heather is also frequently called upon to judge at championships. In April 2008, she will be in Oban, Scotland, as a judge at the Mod festival.
With all of the championship cups, medals and special recognition that Heather Jolley has won over the years, she remains modest about her outstanding achievements. This humility is not lost on her students. It is an extraordinary teacher who can take her dancers to the top of the world and teach them how to win graciously.
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AS A YOUNG GIRL, Heather Jolley studied Highland dance under her mother's guidance
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Most importantly, however, when speaking to disappointed competitors, she always expresses the idea that there is always another day and they are not going to make their millions in dance, so get over it!
Although it is just a dance, the life lessons taught by Heather Jolley will live with her students far beyond their careers in Highland dance.
Heather Jolley is also owner of the well-known Tartantown Scottish store in Coquitlam. The store specializes in Highland dance costumes, bagpipes, pipe band supplies, kilts, Celtic jewellery, rental of complete kilt outfits, and mail order.
For more information about the Heather Jolley School of Highland Dance, call Tartantown at (604) 936-8548, or e-mail: info@tartantown.com.
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