David Wilton

World Highland Dancing Champion 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007

     Canadian-born and raised in Scotland, David and his mother, Delma Wilson, who is also his dance teacher, moved to Scotland when David was four years old.

     David has become a household name in the world of Highland Dancing, having won numerous titles, including the World Championship in each of four consecutive years, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

     Within the 2007-8 dance year, David's accomplishments have also included the winning of the European Championship, the Champion of Champions Championship, and the Australian Commonwealth Championship.

     A student of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, has been earning significant respect in not only the world of dance, but also the world of piping and Celtic music.

Morgan Bamford,
New Zealand

Junior teaching assistant.

Winner British Overseas Championship under 16 years, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

World Juvenile Champion


We are pleased that Morgan will be assisting her teacher, Judy Clark, during her classes at CeltFest.

    Carolyn is a Member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing and is on the Judges' Panel of the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing. She ran a dancing school in Prince George, BC, for fourteen years, since she was 16. During that time she trained many provincial and national champion dancers, and, together with her mother, Donna Olsen, founded the Central Interior Highland Dancing Association in 1975, an association which is still active today.

    After graduating from the University of BC, Carolyn became an investment advisor, and is now in practice with an international investment firm. Between her "day job" and raising her two daughters, Megan and Caton, she continues to adjudicate, guest teach, and conduct workshops from time to time. She is frequently called upon to be involved with both the business and artistic facets of community and arts projects.

Carolyn Phillips Cusson,
British Columbia
Canada

    Born in Montréal, the daughter of an RCAF pilot, Carolyn spent almost half of her childhood before the age of ten in Europe, where she began ballet and piano lessons.

    Upon her family's return to Canada, Carolyn was eleven years old before she had her first Highland Dancing lesson. Maya Dillon (Vandenburg), in Ottawa, was her first teacher.

    In spite of her late start, she won her first Ontario Championship at age thirteen, and went on to become Eastern Canada Champion, Great Lakes Champion, Western U.S. Champion, runner-up BC Champion, Canadian Interprovincial Champion and a World Championship finalist. She competed and won titles until she was 25.

    Being an airforce brat whose family took her from Ottawa to Toronto, then to British Columbia, had its benefits. Carolyn considers herself very fortunate to have trained with many of the world's greatest Highland teachers during her competitive career, including: the late Gladys Forrester, Margo Coutts, the late Evelyn Murray, Donna Jean Ritchie (Ostrander), the late Judith Schey, Dell Hill, Gail Danysk, Heather Jolley, and the late Dorothy Christie.

Carolyn served for eight years as corporate fundraiser, then a Governor, on the Board of Directors for Ballet British Columbia, Canada's fourth largest professional dance organisation. She was appointed Artistic Director for the BC Summer Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies, which took place in August 2002.

    Her largest and most challenging undertaking of this nature is as Principal of The Pacific Institute of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts which she operates with her husband, piper and composer, René Cusson.