A local teacher may have roots in Owen Sound, but since moving to town in his 20s, now considers Collingwood home.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with Daniel Carr, 34, highland dancer, piper and teacher.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in Owen Sound. When I graduated high school, I was teaching and coaching skiing at Blue Mountain Resort. I moved to be closer to where I was working. I was getting tired of the hour-long trip each way.
My parents had split up during my final years of high school, so it was a good time to make a move. Collingwood is a beautiful town.
Q: What do you do now for work?
A: I still coach skiing. I’ve been with Mansfield Ski Club for some time.
During the pandemic I was laid off from my work, as I was in sales and marketing. So, I went to teacher’s college thinking that I loved teaching piping and coaching skiing. I thought it would be a great fit.
I graduated last year, and I’ve been working as an occasional teacher for both Simcoe County and the Bluewater school boards.
Q: You’re currently a piper with the Beinn Gorm Highlanders, and are also a highland dancer. For how long have you been piping and dancing?
A: I started highland dancing in Owen Sound.
In Owen Sound, you kind of played hockey or you danced. Those were the two big things you did growing up in that community. I really started to love the Scottish culture when I was 16, and that’s when my dancing took off.
I went through some years where I thought, is it socially OK for me to be a dancer?
Nowadays, we teach students in public school to be a bit more understanding and to respect other people’s unique backgrounds. There wasn’t as much of that in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
I felt, during that time, you had to be a little bit careful promoting that you were a male dancer in a small hockey town like Owen Sound.
I did feel the support of others around me.
Q: When did you join the Beinn Gorm Highlanders?
A: I think in 2015. I was told about the band, and I went to a practice one evening. I thought, wow. For a small community pipe band... they had a large membership. What a wonderful group of people. There was a very positive culture there. It was about learning.
There were about 30 pipers and seven or eight snare drummers, and other drummers. I was surprised how large the pipe band was here in Collingwood.
Q: You recently won the gold medal for Piobaireachd at the North American championships. Can you tell me about that experience? What is Piobaireachd?
A: Piobaireachd is very old bagpipe music. It’s kind of like classical music.
The event was held in conjunction with the Glengarry Highland Games. The song I played was called The Lament for the Only Son. Every year the Piobaireachd Society in Scotland selects tunes that you must pick from. It’s a challenge to have to learn new tunes every year.
It was really exciting. There’s a high standard of professional bagpipers in North America. There’s about 30 men and women that regularly compete. We’re friends with each other.
The goal for next summer is to go to Scotland and compete there.
Q: Do you have any other hobbies?
A: Really, it’s bagpiping.
Myself and another member of the pipe band are going to start teaching highland dance lessons this fall. We’re currently securing a hall. There hasn’t really been a highland dance presence here. It will be called the Beinn Gorm Highland Dance Company.
In the winter, when things are quieter, I still coach skiing. Skiing in the winter helps me with keeping in shape for dancing. It uses a lot of the same muscles.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people in Collingwood to know about you?
A: I’m very proud to be a part of the community. I moved a few times in my 20s, including teaching highland dance in Prince Edward Island for a year. I always came back to Collingwood.
Now, in my 30s, it’s the place I want to live in for the rest of my life.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we speak with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature runs on CollingwoodToday every weekend. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].