Olive Ogilvie
November 5, 1930 to October 31, 2006

The Saskatchewan Branch has lost a dedicated teacher and dancer with the passing of Olive Ogilvie on October 31st, 2006 after her battle with Alzheimer's disease. Olive's years as a Scottish country dancer dated back to her youth in Dundee, Scotland. Her interest continued after immigrating to Canada with her husband, George and their children in 1966. After several years of dancing in Regina, Olive started the Tayside Dancers in the basement of her home in 1978. She acquired her full teaching certificate in St. Catherine's in 1984 and continued to teach regular Sunday night classes at St. Mary's Anglican Church until her recent illness. Olive's social classes at Tayside were lively but orderly, and full of very honest humoured remarks about our personal struggles to master steps, formations and dances. We learned never to 'back into stalls' when dancing, or 'drive a truck through' double triangles and most particularly to do wonderful allemandes, forced as we were to abandon wide turns by the chair placed by Olive at the top of the set!

Olive was a mentor to many of us pursuing our teacher certificates in Saskatoon, Yorkton and Regina. The Ogilvies established the Yorkton dance group in the early 1980s, where Olive taught on Saturdays until Ferne Katzberg qualified as a teacher. Olive then turned her attention to providing the Ceol Mor Dancers in Regina with a qualified teacher in the 1990s through my 'recruitment'. Personally, Olive taught me to observe dancers, not dances; to bring humour into my teaching and to transfer my passion for dancing to others. Those of us under Olive's sharp eye learned to know our dances - no student of Olive ever relied on cheat sheets for teaching! George and Olive attended dance workshops near and far in their long life together. Wherever there was dancing, there was reason to travel. Their friends are everywhere.

To George, Sheila, Alastair and Douglas and grandchildren Jason, Shanna, James, Scott and Neil, we extend our deepest sympathy and prayers in your time of sorrow. May you be sure that wherever there is dancing, Olive is remembered with fondness and a smile.

written by Linda Putz, Ceol Mor Scottish Country Dancers

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