Page 67 - RSCDS Toronto Golden Jubilee Book

The Full Story
Dr. Donald Fraser, having completed his Ph.D. in Physiology in 1950, moved to London
and later Glasgow where he met some young ladies who persuaded him to get involved in Scottish Country Dancing. He was only there about a month but the interest in Scottish Country Dancing had been created; once he started Scottish Country Dancing, he seldom square danced again although he had previously taught it for several years at Limberlost Lodge, Muskoka and danced at U of T during his undergraduate years.
Donald returned to Canada in 1952. His girlfriend Sally Miller worked at Simpsons where her boss was Matthew Sutherland who, together with his wife Annie, formed a group in Earlscourt Hall on Lansdowne Avenue in the fall of 1950. Matthew told Sally he had done Scottish Country Dancing in Scotland and wanted to start another group in Toronto. She introduced him to Donald Fraser who was quite interested in all kinds of dancing and had also recently done Scottish Country Dancing in Glasgow.
Relying on Donald’s university connections, they discovered they could use Wymilwood, the old Georgian building on University Avenue immediately south of the Planetarium. They were able to reserve space there once every two weeks (Sally said that she didn’t want to put her social life on hold every weekend.) It was Matthew Sutherland, Sally Miller, and Donald Fraser who started this group with two sets of dancers (some of whom were junior faculty members and their wives). One of them, Charles Dunn, a scholar in English poetry, had some familiarity with Scottish Country Dancing, but the remainder were totally lacking in experience. Matthew Sutherland was a precise, pernickety fellow, and his dancing was equally exacting. His teaching was exigent; consequently, Donald Fraser had to interpret Sutherland’s instructions so that his colleagues and friends would remain interested. They didn’t pretend to be precise like Sutherland who also liked to attend their class. His wife Annie always went with him and sat on the sidelines, but she never danced.
This group of Scottish Country dancers in Toronto became rather large, including Claude Bissell and his Scottish wife Christine who had dance experience, but there was no place for her to dance in Toronto. When she learned about the group, she asked to join and brought her Canadian husband with her. He had problems with the Poussette because he could never remember on which foot to begin. One day, he wore two left run- ning shoes saying, "Well, I can’t go wrong now." After Bissell became President of the University of Toronto, the group frequently danced at the President’s residence in Rosedale, ending with his retirement in June 1971.
The second group formed under the guidance of a member of the original group, Ronald Morton Smith, "Sanskrit Smith." He was renowned at the University and in the city for always wearing a kilt, regardless of the weather. He was also a precise dancer and established a group, principally university colleagues, at Rosedale Presbyterian Church in 1955. For the first time, Toronto had the situation of people dancing more than once a week and in more than one group.
George Armstrong, who began with the original group but was an inexperienced dancer started a third group at Christ Church, Deer Park. These were not competing groups created by division or dissension; rather they were created because people wanted to dance more frequently and in different areas of the city.
Georgina Finlay, a member of the original group, created Toronto’s fourth group in Weston in 1955.
Jean Milligan heard of us and came to visit our group. She wasn’t invited to Canada by us, but she did come to visit us. By the time she came to Toronto, there were probably three groups—the original group which met at Wymilwood, the group at Christ Church, Deer Park, and the one at Rosedale Presbyterian Church. Miss Milligan danced with our group, and taught. She seemed to enjoy dancing with us, although she did think that we needed to tighten up our technique.
It was during her initial visit that Miss Milligan suggested these groups form a Branch. Ron Smith, George Armstrong, Donald Fraser, and Georgina Finlay organized the Toronto Branch in October of 1957. Donald Fraser was elected President. When Sally developed Parkinson’s Disease in 1968, Donald stopped dancing because he always saw it as a family event.
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