The Calgary Dance Stampede decided to reinstate an award to recognize contributions and those whom have made major contributions to the sport of Country Dance. With a new beginning for such an award, the beginnings of the sport as we know it today was the source of this year’s winners.
Wayne and Doris Knight began honing their skills in the lower mainland of British Columbia in the early 1980's and first brought their dance troupe, the Rocky Mountain Dancers to Edmonton, Alberta in 1984. Edmonton already had a Country Western Dance community which resulted in the Knights moving on. Wayne and Doris established two new teams of Rocky Mountain Dancers and began teaching, ultimately helping spread the dance form through much of the rest of western Canada. It is no stretch to suggest that over time they taught Country Western Dance to more people in more places in Canada than anyone else. One would be hard pressed to find anyone with the degree of influence relating to the genesis, spread and growth of our form of Country Western Dance in its early days [in this part of the world]. So much of Country Western Dance as we know it today in western Canada can trace back links or a relationship to our recipients ... even this event.
Well deserved thanks and congratulations go out to them, to Wayne and Doris Knight.
The etching on the award reads; Calgary Dance Stampede
In Recognition Of Outstanding Effort and
Contribution Toward the Sport of
Country Western Dance
Presented to;
Wayne & Doris Knight - 2009
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