October 2012 – stepdance lessons and O’Shraves in Toronto

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Stepdance Lessons – AlgomaTrad is once again offering Stepdancing lessons to North Shore and Sault area residents this fall. Champion Ontario Stepdancer Ariel Hyatt will be available for private or group lessons for 6 weeks, beginning on the weekend of October 20^th. Please contact us at 705 782 4311 or music@algomatrad.ca if you are interested.

Ariel Hyatt started dancing Ontario Old Time Stepdancing at 9 years old, and studied under renowned teacher and stepdance champion Chad Wolfe of North Bay.  In 2003 she won the junior title at the Clogging, Square Dance and Step Dance Festival in Dundalk, Ontario, the Intermediate Title in Dundalk in 2004, and the Open Stepdance class in 2005. Later that summer of 2005 she won the Ontario Open Stepdance title in Bobcaygeon.

In 2006, Ariel ended the summer by winning the highly coveted Open Stepdance division at the Pembroke Old Time Fiddling and Stepdancing Championship. In 2007 she again won first place in the Open Stepdance Category at the Ontario Championship. Since 2008 Ariel has continued to dance and work on her music, but with a greater emphasis on original composition and choreography for her group performance endeavors.

Her last year of competition was in 2009. She devotes much of her time to teaching stepdance and is a member of several music groups; as a guitarist, a vocalist and a stepdancer. Her performance group Nape of the Scroll opened for Yves Lambert et le Bebert Orchestra and has been featured at the Northern Lights Festival in Sudbury.  She also performed at the 2011 Summerfolk Festival in Owen Sound in a duet with Adriana Ciccone, having won the Summerfolk Youth Discoveries competition that year.

O’Schraves in Toronto – Benoit to play at Toronto Contradance, Saturday, October 13 – Benoit, Toronto resident Eli Howard, and Colin Savoie-Levac of Quebecois trad group, Dentdelion, all regular teachers and participants at the AlgomaTrad Family Camp, are providing music at the Toronto Contradance (http://ieee.uwaterloo.ca/~tcd/index.html), THIS SATURDAY, October 13, at St. Barnabas Church Hall on the Danforth. It’s across the road from the Carrot Common. From the Chester Subway Station walk westwards along the Danforth then south on Hampton Ave. Follow the path through the playground to the doors at the end of the path. Basics workshop starts at 7pm.

The whole O’Schrave family will be in town to attend and perform a private showcase at the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference on the same weekend, so we’ll all be out dancing up a storm to some great tunes from Benoit, Eli, and Colin (except for Pat…see below).

Pat will be performing in Queenston Heights at 11:45 AM and 1:00 PM on Saturday, October 13, with Muddy York (Ian Bell and Anne Lederman) as part of the War of 1812 Battle of Queenston Heights re-enactment and festivities. Many of the day’s events, including the musical performance, take place at the Queenston Heights Park, 14184 Niagara River Parkway, Queenston, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Info: 905-468-6621 or visit the 1812 Events website here.

Later in the day, Pat will be performing with Ian Bell in Grimsby at 7PM. Hands Across The Waters is a musical concert taking place at Trinity United Church, 100 Main Street West, Grimsby on Saturday, October 13, 2012 at 7 p.m. Musicians Ian Bell from Port Dover and Lee Murdock from Chicago will entertain with well-researched nautical and other songs from the War of 1812 era. A night of music for young and old alike. Tickets are $20.00 per person and can be reserved at the Grimsby Historical Society’s Archives location in the Carnegie building at the corner of Adelaide and Ontario Street by visiting or calling 905-309-0796.