Highland Dance Director Kamrin MacKnight
Kamrin MacKnight grew up dancing, starting with ballet and tap at age 3, adding international folk dancing at age 5, and then Scottish Highland dance at age 8. A former championship-level Highland dancer herself, she has a long association with the following organizations:
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the British Association of Teachers of Dancing (BATD), member (former)
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the Federation of United States Teachers and Adjudicators (FUSTA), member (former)
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Scottish Dance Teachers Alliance (SDTA), associate member (former)
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United Kingdom Alliance (UKA), licentiate (former)
In addition to Scottish Highland Dance, coaching a string of students who have gone on to become successful Highland competitors, Kamrin has also taught ballet, Scottish ladies' step, and International Folk Dancing.
Kamrin MacKnight
Highland Dance Director
Kamrin has been a performing member, teacher, director and choreographer with many groups, including: Brigham Young International Folk Dancers and Theatre Ballet, The Piedmont Highlanders, Cairngorm Dancers (directed by Jo Hamilton), Celtic Spirit (directed by James Lomath), and has toured throughout the United States, Japan, and western and eastern Europe with various performing dance groups. She continues to study Scottish Highland and other Scottish dance forms (e.g., Cape Breton, ladies' step, hard shoe, country dancing), as well as international folk dancing.
A longtime staff member of the Stockton Folk Dance Camp along with her husband Gordon Deeg (who is a member of the Board of Directors), she serves as the "Footnotes" editor, teaches Scottish ladies' step and ceilidh dancing, and serves in various other roles.
She currently directs, choreographs, and performs Highland and Ladies' Step dances for The Red Thistle Dancers.
When Kamrin is not dancing, she is very involved with dog sports (obedience, rally, tracking, nosework, barnhunt, and freestyle). She is an American Kennel Club tracking judge and a freestyle judge.
Kamrin MacKnight is a practicing patent attorney with a Ph.D. in Microbiology, specializing in biotechnology and intellectual property transactional law. In addition, she is a certified flower essence practitioner through the Flower Essence Society and Spirit-in-Nature, as well as a Reiki Master (Usui and Violet Flame), all of which come in handy when the aches and pains of too much dancing arise!