Square Dancing has always been a part of Dottie's life. Her parents danced together before they were married and continued until herdad was in his eighties. Her mother continues to dance simple dances even today at 90 years of age. As a child her family attended skiweekends at the Appalachian Mountain Club's Cardigan Lodge. Following dinner all changed into square dance attire and children wereallowed to dance for a half hour before bed.
Dottie and her husband Gary began dancing in 1973 in Belmont, Massachusetts, to Roger Whynot, formerly of Nova Scotia, andfounder of the Jolly Rogers. They danced mostly to live music. The next summer they moved to Nova Scotia where Gary began teaching atSt. Mary's and they began square dancing with the Bee Squares, dancing toMarg and Art Blumsum, and learned some Easy Rounds. They also moved intotheir newly built house in Lawrencetown and joined the Marine Swingers inPorters Lake dancing to Wade Savage.
After learning Plus with Lorne Tyler, they were among the foundingmembers of the Eager Eights. They then learned Advanced while living inMadison, Wisconsin, during Gary's Sabbatical year in 1980-81 under GeneKnutson. During these years Dottie and Gary learned the phases in RoundDancing and dance Phase III to V rounds. During this same period they alsolearned Advanced (Al & A2) and Challenge (Cl & C2) in Square Dancing.
Dottie and her husband Gary were Support Services Chairman and laterVice Chairman for the first Halifax National Convention in 1982 with 5000dancers visiting. Dottie was Program Chairman for the second Halifax Nationalin 1994. This included organizing a Callers School given by Gloria Roth andSteve Kopman. The logo "Dance by the Shore in '94" inspired Dottie to createa new dance move called "Dance by the Shore", danced to the tune of "LittleBurnt Potato" as played by Don Messer and his Islanders. After being taught toseveral squares of dancers from around the province, this dance was performedat the opening ceremony held in the outdoor amphitheatre at The Forks wherethe Red and Assiniboine Rivers join in Winnipeg, and as part of the Friday evening entertainment in Halifax. Dottie has been recruited by theNew Brunswick Board to assist them with the Program for 2002 in Saint John.Since 1989 Dottie has been attending the National Advancedand Challenge Convention held in June each year at various locations inthe US. She has attended all but two of the Canadian National Conventions. Dottie was active with the implementation of Nova Scotia'sinvolvement in the Participation Campaign of National Physical Activity Week. She supported the activities of the Society by subscribing toand occasionally contributing articles to Canadian Dancers News and by attending most of theAnnual General Meetings held at National Conventions. Dottie says the Highlight of her CallingCareer was in 1998 in Ottawa when she called on Parliament Hill to 50 squares of enthusiasticdancers. In 2000 Dottie called Advanced, Challenge, and some Contras at the National in CanadaPlace in Vancouver. She also presented a caller's workshop on Learning Styles, TeachingTechniques, and Class Programming.
Locally, Dottie has always been a strong supporter and worker for the Metro Square andRound Dance Association (MSRDA), the Square and Round Federation of Nova Scotia (SRDFNS),the Association of Nova Scotia Square and Round Dance Teachers (ANSSRDT), the MaritimeCallers and Cures Association (MCCA), and Dance Nova Scotia (DANS).
While Dottie and husband Gary were Presidents of SRDFNS (1983-85) they also handledmost of MSRDA's business as there was no chairman at that time. They then were Vice Chairman ofthe MSRDA from 1987-89. Dottie has been the editor and publisher of "Metro Matters" sinceJanuary of 1992, which is published two or three issues each year. She is also unofficial liaisonbetween the MSRDA and the Metro area callers and cuers.Since she was Chairman she has been planning the Metro Summer Dance schedule and most of theprograms for various Metro events.
Dottie became Central Region Representative to SRDFNS in 1982 and was elected as VicePresident. She served as President from 1983 to 1985 and was involved in the first Federation'sFestival, held in Shelburne. Part of the President of the Federation's job was attending DANSmeetings. In 1982 Dottie was elected to the Board of DANS and held that position for seven years,serving as Treasurer for the last two years until 1989. She continued to work on the EducationCommittee of DANS until 1995. This included several sessions teaching Student Teachers both atDalhousie and in Truro how to Square Dance so they could teach their gym students.
Dottie was Program Committee Chair for Federation's Festival '99 and was also inspired tocreate the logo that accompanied the slogan "Step In Time in 99". In the fall of 2000 at a specialPromotion, Education and Demonstration Show connected with the Annual General Meeting ofSRDFNS, Dottie presented a half-hour session on the History of Square Dancing. This included theteaching of typical dances from the Morris Dancers onward and ended with the ANSSRDT membersdemonstrating a Lancer.
Dottie has accepted and has done justice to the roll of a principal trainer of Callers for both ANSSRDT and MCCA workshop trainingsessions.
Dottie began calling for the Motivators in October 1983. In the summers of 1984 and 1985 she attended a week of Caller's Collegewith Callerlab Accredited Caller Coach Gloria Roth at the House of Roth in Clementsport, N. S. In 1988 she attended the 3 day Callers Schoolbefore the Hamilton National with Mike Jacobs, John Kaltenthaler, and Dick Bayer. Dottie started calling Advance and formed the club "SailSets", which has been very successful. She began a new Plus Group called "Coordinators" and she began calling for them in January 1988. In1991 Dottie began calling for Lake City Swingers, a Basic and Mainstream Club. To add to her repertoire Dottie taught Line Dancing atPrince Arthur Junior High.
Since Dottie believes that Round Dancing is part of the Square Dance activity, and she has learned to cue many easy round dancesand a few Phase III dances. She also teaches basic two-step and waltz moves to Lake City Swingers.
Since 1995 Dottie has been calling regularly for the Southern A Squares in Moncton, New Brunswick, on a rotating basis with RonLowe of St. John and Gerry O'Hara of Fredericton. This schedule works well in providing Advanced dancing for this eager group with no localadvanced caller.
In addition to her regular calling schedule of three to five times each week, she also calls voluntarily for various Metro demonstrationsand events including July 1 waterfront demos, Natal Day Parade Floats, Northwood's Winter Carnival, Seniors' Expo, 50-Plus Expo, and manymall demonstrations. She has been on staff for two Federation Festivals - in the Valley in 1989 and in Halifax in 1999 and for many MCCAConventions. Recently, she acted as coach for, and appeared on, the TV show "It's A Living".
