Scottish accolade for thriving Kirkcaldy dance club teaching people the art of ballroom and Latin

Kirkcaldy Dance was named Dancesport Scotland’s ‘Dance School Of The Year’ for 2024 - an accolade it hailed as “the icing on the cake from a very busy and successful year of hard fought Ballroom and Latin dancing.”

The club puts hundreds of dance enthusiasts through their paces every week both in the Lang Toun and also in St Andrews. It is run by principal teachers Jim and Karen Millar along with assistant teachers, Johnny Millar, Polina Myroshnychenko, and Tom and Anna Hoather.

In Kirkcaldy it hosts classes in several church halls and the Philp Hall, and also operates out of the University of St Andrews with a sevens day a week programme.

Kirkcaldy Dance, which launched 11 years ago,teaches ballroom, Latin and sequence dance and has classes for children aged six and upwards, couples, and solo classes for adults with the door also open to beginners of all ages.

Jim and Karen launched the club after retiring.

Jim danced professionally until the age of 20, appearing the ‘Come Dancing’ - the BBC’s forerunner to the hugely successful ‘Strictly’ series.

”We retired and I was bored after about a fortnight after going from working all hours to doing nothing,” he said. “A local teacher invited me to come along to teach for an hour a week. It just snowballed from there. We’re busier then ever!””

The dance club has a busy schedule - there are six competitions across Scotland each year, all for different age groups. It is also the only club in the Lang Toun with experienced, highly trained and qualified professional teachers for kids classes - it teaches Scotland’s top couples in under 10, under 12, under 14 , under 16 and adult sections.

Its main competitions are ballroom, with all the hard work paying off with the accolade from DanceScotland which is the recognised governing body for ballroom and Latin American dancing in Scotland, and aims to promote both styles for both social and competitive levels.

The award came at the last Scottish competition of 2024, capping a very busy and successful year of Ballroom and Latin dancing.