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Alan
Armin and Bruce
Jo and Bruce

bruceJo

The Mountain View class has an excellent teaching staff. Each of our teachers has a deep and abiding love for Scottish country dance and enjoyment of the dance is the chief goal of the Mountain View class. All of the teachers hold certificates from the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland). The certification process is quite rigorous and assures that instructors are both accomplished dancers and thoroughly grounded in style, technique, and teaching skills.

Jo Hamilton Bruce Hamilton Alan Twhigg
Armin Busse Fred DeMarse

Jo Hamilton Jo Hamilton

A native of Winnipeg, Canada, Jo started Scottish country dancing in 1968 and she began teaching a children's class in 1969. She earned both her preliminary and full teaching credentials at St. Andrews Summer School, becoming a full-fledged teacher in 1972. Her experience encompasses all levels of Scottish country dance classes, from children to advanced, demonstration, adjudication and teacher candidates. Jo is an accomplished Ladies (Highland) Stepdancer and she teaches classes in Palo Alto and Atherton and is often invited to teach both Scottish country dance and Ladies Stepdance at workshops in the USA and Canada.

Jo's performance career includes demonstrations in Britain, USA, and Canada; among them, A Scottish Fancy, which toured Canada and the US and A Christmas Fantasy (the latter was broadcast across Canada on CBC TV). She performed regularly with THE BUNCH OF GRAPES, an English Music Hall group, at Winnipeg's Folklorama as well as conventions, concerts, shows for visiting British Royalty, and several TV appearances. In Winnipeg, she performed in professional musical theatre productions, including Wizard of Oz   and The King and I  at Rainbow Stage, and Little Mary Sunshine, Carousel, and Die Fledermaus  with other Winnipeg companies. She also choreographs Scottsh dance performances, including one for Queen Elizabeth's visit to Canada in 1984.

In recent years, Jo produced 2 books of simple Scottish country dances suitable for audience participation and beginners, Let's All Dance and Let's All Dance, Too.  The books are available through the San Francisco RSCDS Bookstore.

An elementary school educator, in her "spare" time, Jo enjoys English country and Irish celidh dancing. She also enjoys needle crafts, sewing, and gardening. She is married to Bruce Hamilton and they live in Menlo Park with two dogs and two cats.

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Bruce Hamilton

Bruce began Scottish country dancing in 1967, at college, and immediately fell in love with it. He is particularly fond of its simultaneous power and elegance, and also its music. He was one of the founding teachers of the San Diego Branch, and moved to Mountain View in 1976. Bruce and his wife Jo have trained several of our local teachers, and occasionally teach workshops outside the Bay Area.

Bruce also loves and teaches English dance -- country, morris, and sword. He is a founding member of the Deer Creek Morris Men, a regular participant in The Christmas Revels, and is president of the Country Dance and Song Society, the umbrella organization for English dancing in North America.

By day, Bruce is a computer scientist at Agilent Laboratories. He doesn't have any hobbies besides dancing -- not enough nights in the week!

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Alan Twhigg

Alan's involvement in Scottish Country Dancing goes back to the late 1970's and he's been a Mountain View class teacher since 1987. Scottish country dance first caught his interest in college; but the seeds were planted much earlier. When he was a youngster, his parents were Scottish country dancers and often took him to bagpipe concerts and Highland Games. (Perhaps the Scottish music, imprinted at so early an age, stimulated the MacNeil and MacGregor genes in his heritage?)

In addition to Scottish country dancing, Alan is an accomplished Highland dancer and performs frequently in public. He does both Scottish country dance and Highland dance with the Red Thistle Dancers, a performance group based in Palo Alto. Alan frequently travels to Scotland to attend dance training schools, and broaden his knowledge of the culture.

Alan has also taught the San Jose and Stanford classes and he's a frequent guest instructor with other Bay Area groups. His experience includes teaching Scottish country dance at workshops across the Western US and Canada.

Elsewhere in life Alan works as an information developer in the computer networking industry. Other interests include foreign languages, literature, travel, and history.

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Armin Busse

Armin Busse, formerly of Bielefeld, Germany, brings a wealth of teaching experience to the Mt. View class.

Though a frequent visitor to the Bay Area in the past, Armin, now lives and works in the Bay Area. Armin began teaching the Mt. View class in spring, 2000.

Armin performs with the Red Thistle Dancers, a non-profit organization performing the dances and music of Scotland throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and at international festivals around the world.

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Fred DeMarse

Originally from Michigan, Fred moved to California and, in 1986, started Scottish Country Dancing as a charter member of the Mountain View class. He danced with both the Dunsmuir and the Red Thistle performance groups before relocating to Los Angeles for job purposes. He passed his Highland teaching certificate in 1995 and his full certificate for Scottish Country Dancing in 1996.

Fred returned to the Bay Area in 2005, where he teaches Highland dancing and Scottish country dancing to children and adults. He continues to perform with the Red Thistle Dancers. He strongly believes in learning and practicing the basics of Scottish dancing, but his ultimate goal is to be able to impart this knowledge and the desire to dance well while creating a social environment that is friendly, supportive and fun.

In his "spare" time, Fred works at Chevron's Richmond Refinery as a chemical engineer.

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Last updated: August, 2007