Grace McMillan: Dundee's Dinky-Di Connection

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Grace McMillan (1871-1958) was an Australian-born education leader who grew up and began her teaching career in Dundee, Scotland. Miss McMillan is of special interest to folk dance historians because of her c.1905 book Swedish Recreative Exercises for School & Playground, which was used as one of the first resources in the early years of the folk dance movement for schools in the UK and USA. In 2023, Erica Nielsen Okamura, an American expat living in Australia, uncovered an unexpected 1912 edition of Miss McMillan’s book, which launched a rather challenging journey to uncover Miss McMillan’s identity and connection to Australia.

Erica Nielsen Okamura holds a Master's of Fine Arts degree in Dance from Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) and a Bachelor's of Arts degree in International Studies with Cultural Anthropology from Macalester College (St. Paul, Minnesota). In her 20s, Erica spent two years traveling across the USA to research dance communities for her book Folk Dancing (2011), part of the American Dance Floor Series by Bloomsbury Publishing. Erica moved to Australia with her family in 2018. Her current research focuses on the adoption of national or folk dances for children's physical exercise and organised play at schools and playgrounds in the early 20th century. For more information about her and the Grace MacMillan project please see www.SwedishCastle.com.

Doors open from12.30pm at the Glasite Hall on King Street. Please enter from the churchyard or the east side of the building (the lift is available from both sides but the accessible door is at the east entrance). You DO NOT need to bring a printed ticket.

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available to purchase before the talk. Entry to the talks are free but if you would like to make a donation towards the hire of the hall, there will be a donations tin available.

If you need to cancel for any reason, please do so via Eventbrite or email us on archives@dundeecity.gov.uk.

For more information about the Friends of Dundee City Archives, or to join, please see their website: http://www.fdca.org.uk/.

The image in this event listing is used with the kind permission of the Methodist Ladies' College Archives (Melbourne, Australia)