Highland Dance North

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Mary-Elizabeth (M-E) MacGregor Chaney began dancing at the age of four when she attended ballet classes with Eugenia Pankotan in Mt. Clemens, MI, under whose instruction she studied until age eleven. At age nine, she began Highland Dance lessons with Janis (Ross) Burkhardt in the Detroit area. Under Janis’s tutelage, Mary-Elizabeth took part in numerous performances and exhibitions in the Detroit area with the St. Andrew’s Pipe Band; particular highlights during the teen years were performing with over 50 other Highland dancers in a mass Highland Fling during (a very muddy) half-time at a Detroit Lions and meeting daredevil stuntman Evel Knievel at Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition!

In her mid-teens, M-E had the opportunity to attend dance camp and studio lessons taught by the late Gladys Forrester. While travelling and competing in England and Scotland, she also attended workshops with Jean Ritchie and the late Highland Dance great, Elspeth Strathern. In addition, M-E participated in U.S. workshops led by Members and Fellows of the British Association of Teachers of Dance (BATD) and passed all levels of medal testing offered at that time. After eight years competing primarily in Michigan and Canada, she headed to college, graduating from Alma, where she also served as leader of the Kiltie Lassies her senior year and helped set in motion plans by the college to offer Highland Dance for P.E. credit, which came to fruition the following year and continues today. She also holds an MA in English from Northern Michigan University.

M-E has taught Highland Dance, considered the most sophisticated form of national dancing in the world, in Northern Michigan since 1997 and is a BATD and FUSTA Midwest Member. She offers lessons at Vivace School of Music and Arts, Inc. in Harbor Springs where she lives with her husband, Paul and daughter, Eleanor, who shares her mom’s love of dance (and sometimes tries to teach it during lessons!) and takes lessons in the Bluebells class. Her son, Andrew, is a recent at Albion College graduate teaching English in South Korea.

Updated 2.2010