About Us.
Originally from Leith, Jean Swanston now of Logierait began teaching Highland Dancing in Highland Perthshire in 1975.
At first classes took place in Ballinluig and then they moved to Grandtully and Pitlochry. Classes now take place in the Studio at Middleton, Logierait.
Parents of the dancers attending the Jean Swanston School of Dancing and adults resident in the area with a genuine interest in Highland Dancing form the Atholl Dancing Association. The A.D.A. was formed on 1 February 1979 with Barbara MacKintosh as the first Chairman. Part of the committee’s remit was and still is to organise the Atholl Dancing Festival which attracts competitors from all over Scotland to the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry. Since 1983 the committee has also organised a competition in March in Grandtully for members of the dancing class.
The Class Christmas outing for the dancers, funded by the ADA, is usually to see a traditional Pantomime.
The Atholl Dancing Association is a Competition Organiser in Membership of the Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing.
In the Year 2000 the ADA on behalf of the SOBHD (as it was then) organised an event in Blair Castle to celebrate the new Millennium and also the Golden Jubilee of the SOBHD. At that event the Atholl Clasp was presented by the ADA. The first recipient was Mrs Jessie Stewart-Haggarty.