Our Cuers

We are very pleased to have a team of two cuers sharing the teaching and cueing duties for our club. Wendie and Connie very much enjoy working together to teach  and to provide a varied program for Thursday dances. They are always looking for  and sharing new dances.  The best perk of having a team is that both get a chance to actually dance!!!

Connie Ritchie

Connie has 42 years of square and round dancing experience which began in Anchorage, Alaska. In 1985 Connie moved back to Victoria, BC, her home town. Five years later, she started teaching round dancing in Victoria, and formed the “Rainbow Rounders”, a Phase II+ club that continues weekly.. Currently, Connie is the Round Dance coordinator for the BC Square and Round Dance Federation, the same group that presented her husband Al Ritchie (deceased) and Connie with the Sillery Award, an unexpected honour. Connie has attended Roundalab Minilabs and a convention, which helped to develop her interest in choreography. Connie’s choreography for the waltz, “Tuscon Too Soon” was chosen as Roundalab Round of the Quarter, for the first quarter of 2018. She was Treasurer and later Round Dance Coordinator for the Victoria and District Caller Teachers Association, organizing a Minilab, a week-long cuer school, and weekend workshops. Connie has been the featured cuer at weekend festivals and special dances, as well as teaching and cueing at both BC and Alberta Conventions. In 2021, Connie moved to Nanaimo, BC. She had started cueing for the “Island Gems”, a Phase II to IV club, in 2020. Connie also cues weekly for the “Rainbow Rounders” in Victoria, as well as monthly for the “Ocean Waves” square dance club in Courtenay. She knows a lot about driving up and down Vancouver Island. Connie is grateful to have Ernie Kaesmodel assist with teaching for the past year.

Wendie Harrington

Wendie and her husband Herb first started square dancing in the 1980's . They had a twenty odd year break while they were involved with family activities. On Wendie's retirement in 2004 they rejoined the dance community and haven't looked back. Wendie started helping teach her club's square dance classes and then began teaching round dancing in 2014. As well as learning to cue she also attended caller schools in Victoria and Circle Eight Ranch in Washington state. her first official calling /cueing duties were with the Sand Dollars club which danced in Parksville at that time. She started cueing for the Island Gems ini 2020. Since becoming more involved with round dancing she has developed an interest in choreography and has published several rounds. As well as cueing for the Island Gems she is also the caller/ cuer for the Amalgam-Eighers Square and Round dance club and has been a line dance teacher for the harbour City Seniors for many years.