Yesterday I wrote about buying a picture from fiddler and step dancer Alf Hamilton and Debbie Roy very kindly sent me this great information.
From 1963 to 1966, world renowned stepdancer, Gilles Roy, travelled extensively throughout Quebec, Cape Breton, Gaspe and Ireland to hear the music and see the stepdancing styles of these regions. When Gilles would return home after one of his trips, he would work for hours in the basement of his parent’s farmhouse, dancing on a sheet of plywood and dodging the large wooden beams of the basement ceiling.
His style of stepdancing is a very unique blend of French-Canadian and Celtic stepdance styles with a little hint of the Irish influence to which he adds his own technique and rhythm.
* 3-time International stepdance champion *
* Inducted into Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame – Oct. 1, 2000 *
* “Dubbed” as “Ambassador of Traditional Canadian Stepdancing” by Canadian External Affairs – 1976 *
International Tours – Germany, Greece, Turkey, France, Italy, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Venezuela, England, Cyprus with Tommy Hunter, Gordie Tapp, Graham Townsend, Carol Kennedy and Al Cherny.
Canadian Tours – with Don Messer (9), Tommy Hunter, Faron Young, Les Danceurs Quebecois, Mac Wiseman, Grampa Jones, Ward Allan, Graham Townsend, Jean Carignan, and Philippe Bruneau
American Tours – Vermont, Massachusetts, Georgia, Washington D.C., Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Montana, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Maine
T.V. Shows – Juliet, Don Messer (14), Tommy Hunter (7), Country Hoedown, John Allan Cameron, Hee Haw (3), Sing Along Jubilee, Du Cote de Quebec, Good Morning America, CMT
Other Entertainers Gilles has worked with – Jean Carignan, Philippe Bruneau, Edith Butler, Winston (Scotty) Fitzgerald, Wilf Carter, Tex Ritter, Sylvia Tyson, Anne Murray, Jeanne d’Arc Charlebois
Stepdance Instructor for “Leahy” and “The Stepping Ambassadors
Related reading
He was a Step Dancing Legend from Up da Line..
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