Click on the above link for class information 

            Two hundred years ago, settlers from the Scottish Highlands and Western Islands immigrated to Cape Breton, an isolated island off the tip of present-day Nova Scotia.  They brought with them a form of hard-shoe dance then performed in Scotland.  These steps have largely died out in the old country but have been preserved in the kitchens and living rooms and on the dance floors of Cape Breton Island.  Similar to clogging, Irish step, and tap-dance, they are performed to fiddle or bagpipe or even puirt-a-beul (singing without instruments). 

            The Cape Breton Step Dance Class began in 1997 in the classic tradition of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: in the living rooms of two homes. The teachers, Gail Erwin and Bob Schuldheisz, wanted to share the steps they had learned in Cape Breton.   Class members have performed at Scottish Games and Celtic events from Woodland to Bakersfield. The performance group took the name "Caper Duck"--Caper from the term by which Cape Bretoners identify themselves, and Duck for the class's stuffed mascot decked out in the Cape Breton tartan.

Web Page Maintained by

Bob Schuldheisz

bobschul@softcom.net

Last updated August 12, 2008