Michelle MacGillivray Dobbin – 2025 Hall of Fame Inductee
For the love of Dancing
We continue to profile Highland Games heroes who will be inducted into this week in the Antigonish Highland Games Hall of Fame, in this post we feature Highland dancer Michelle MacGillivray Dobbin
In the 1970’s, the streets of Vince’s Intervale swarmed with kids and most of them were boys. Von MacGillivray saw that six-year-old Michelle was right in the mix, turning into a tomboy. Von was afraid she’d never see her daughter in a skirt.
Bingo! Highland Dancing lessons for Michelle. And it worked! Michelle took to Highland Dancing like she was Gerarda MacDonald! In fact, Gerarda was her first teacher.
Michelle would go on to wear plenty of skirts after she was chosen as one of the youngest dancers for the original Scotia Highland Dancers, an innovative group choreographed by Gerarda, Janice Macquarrie and Bernice Valvasori. Their vision was to show off the agility, grace, strength and quickness required by Highland dance through group performance, rather than individual competition.
The Scotia Dancers gave their first public performance in 1980, appearing in Nova Scotia tartan kilts and vests mostly made by their mothers. As a result of that one performance, the group was selected to represent Nova Scotia at the International Gathering of the Clans in Scotland the very next year! Imagine the excitement that year as 40 girls practiced and practiced and their mothers sewed and sewed!
The girls were not only going to Scotland to perform original choreographies. All 40 of them, as a condition of being part of the troupe, would be dancing competitively. The Scotia Dancers brough home 86 awards from Scotland. Eleven-year-old Michelle was one of the stars, winning first runner-up in the British Commonwealth Under-12 category. It was an unforgettable experience that not only made her mother, but all of Antigonish proud.
Michelle continued dancing until she was 28, remaining a Scotia Highland Dancer the whole time. Asked why she performed with the Scotias longer than any other dancer, Michelle says “I just loved dancing. Dance taught me so many lessons I’ve drawn on my whole life. I learned about setting goals, time management, discipline, precision, being a team player…”
One of Michelle’s earliest dancing memories is competing for the Florence MacMillan trophy for the Flora Mac Donald’s Fancy. “It was very hot, and my feet were burning as I got on the old Highland Games stage. I remember doing the final step and turning and seeing (dancing mom and piper) Deanie Beaton piping for us. The thought that went through my head was “Isn’t this is beautiful, doing something I love.”
In the twelve years she competed in Scotdance Nova Scotia, Michelle was provincial champion in her age-group seven times. Her other awards, regionally, nationally and internationally are too many to list but her record at the Antigonish Highland Games is spectacular. A few highlights speak for Michelle’s prowess:
At age 11 Michelle won the trophy for overall excellence with firsts in the four Highland dances: the Fling, Sword Dance, Seann Trubhias and the Reel. The next year, in 1982, Michelle swept top spot in all four dances again.
In 1988, Michelle competed for the first time in the most senior age group, seventeen and over. She took first in Fling, the Sword and the Reel and was first runner-up in all four National dances.
The next year Michelle put on a competitive performance for the books. Competing in the most highly contested dances of the Games, Michelle swept first place medals in the Fling, the Sword, the Seann Trubhias and the Reel. On a hot stage on Sunday afternoon, she danced the four National dances: the Blue Bonnets, the Earl of Errol, the Irish Jig and the Barracks; and won them all. By sweeping gold in all eight dances, Michelle did something no other dancer had done at the Games. To top it all, for the second year in a row, Michelle was awarded the Florence MacMillan trophy. She was especially honored to accept the trophy from Florence herself.