Erin Mansfield

Fellow - British Association of Teachers of Dance

Judge - Scottish Offical Board of Highland Dancing

Erin is originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she danced for many years.  She represented Nova Scotia for seven consecutive years at Interprovincial Championships, and was a member of the Amethyst Scottish Dancers of Nova Scotia.  As a member of Amethyst, Erin has travelled extensively, performing in Texas, Mexico, England, Wales, Scotland, and the Netherlands.  Before leaving Halifax, Erin taught weekly dance lessons for the Halifax Regional Municipality in addition to private lessons and workshops.

Since moving to Ottawa over 10 years ago, Erin has continued to have a successful highland dance career with the Macdonald Dancers of Ottawa.  As an individual, her greatest competitive achievements were qualifying as a finalist in the World Highland Dance Championships in Dunoon, Scotland in 1999 and placing in the Top 6 at the Ontario Closed Championships in 2004.  As part of a strong choreography team, Erin has had great success in group competitions, including several top three finishes at both the Scotdance Canada Championship Series and United States Inter-regionals, in addition to winning choreography challenges at many highland games such as New Brunswick, Celtic Classic, Loon Mountain, Summerside, and Loch Norman.

In 2007, Erin successfully completed the exam to become an adjudicator of the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dance.  Since early 2008, she has travelled all over Canada and the Eastern US to judge competitions.  As of 2010, Erin will be a full member of the panel judging both competitions and championships.

Erin began teaching in Ottawa in 2005 after completing her university and professional education. Due to the tremendous success of the programs at Glebe Community Centre and Old Town Hall community centres, she is now expanding to offer classes in one central location.  Programs will continue at both community centres under a new teacher, while Erin continues teaching over 40 students of all ages.  This is great news to see so many kids and adults participating in highland dance!  She is thrilled to be expanding the number of classes available this year, and is looking forward to working with many returning and new dancers.

Outside of the dance studio, Erin is a Certified Management Accountant and is the Controller at Novotel Hotel in Ottawa.