The Annapolis Valley Highland Dancing Association has decided to retire the Association due to the lack of parent volunteers and declining membership. We have been a very strong and active club since our start in 1988, but unfortunately low enrollments over the years have made it difficult for our club to operate.

We do want to encourage highland dancing in the Annapolis Valley and suggest anyone who wishes to take lessons to contact our senior Dance Instructor Debby Stevenson of Windsor. Ms. Stevenson offers weekly classes in Windsor. You can find out more about our teachers my clicking the Teachers link under the main menu. Our other teacher Ms. Catherine MacDow is currently not offering lessons in Berwick. Catherine will once again travel to China for teaching opportunities. If you or your child are new to the Valley and would like to be involve in a wonderful family activity we encourage you to try highland dancing. The association members would be very pleased if the numbers of dancers increased and the association could be revived. Therefore, we are keeping the website up and running and our name registered with Joint Stocks until 2014, in hopes that a new group of highland families wish to continue with the association and keep it’s history alive. For information on our association you can contact Past President Kimberley Monette @ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Those who are new to highland dance begin with two basic steps, the Pas de basques and Highcuts and progress over several years to master a range of traditional dances and an increasing number of variations on the steps in each dance.  The formal training includes the Highland Fling, Sword Dance, Seann Triubhas, Reel, Sailors’ Hornpipe, Irish Jig, Flora MacDonald’s Fancy, Scottish Lilt, Highland Laddie, Barracks Johnnie, Earl of Errol, and Village Maid.  Since these traditional dances contain elements from nearly all other dance forms, they also form the basis for choreographed performance pieces that everyone enjoys.

Competitions are organized so that dancers are in competition only with other dancers of the same age and skill level.  Only after a dancer has placed in the top three of their category in 6 different competitions, are they advanced to the next category.  This gives the dancers achievable goals and the time to develop lasting friendships with other children of their own age.  The AVHDA is a non-profit society organised to foster and preserve the tradition of highland dancing, with special

Acadia Theater

In addition to formal competitions, our reorganized club is placing greater emphasis on non-competitive performances that are often just for fun, but also may involve supporting community events.  Recent community performances have included Port Royal’s 400th Anniversary Celebrations, Berwick Gala Days, Annapolis Valley Celtic Christmas Concert, the televised Kinsmen Christmas Miracle (Kentville), Gaelic Evening at Wolfville’s Acadia Theater, Robbie Burns Ceilidh, Clan Donald and Claymore Society presentations.  Since we plan to increase the number of performances, we welcome invitations from any interested group.