Mel and Ellie Briscoe
Mel Briscoe began Scottish country dancing in 1977, danced with
the Boston Branch demonstration team from 1979 to 1986, and moved to northern
Virginia in 1987. He received his Preliminary Pass in 1982 at the Teacher's
Association of Canada Summer School at St. Catharines, Ontario, where he
also met his wife, Ellie. Mel returned to TAC in 1984 for his Teacher's
Certificate training from June Shore. He has taught classes and workshops
throughout Canada and the United States, and in Japan. He primarily enjoys
dances done well, by dancers having fun, to music that is great.
Mel is an oceanographer at the Office Of Naval Research in Arlington, Virginia,
where he is Director of the Ocean, Atmosphere, and Space Processes and Prediction
Division. In addition to SCD, his hobbies are computers, scuba diving, ham radio, and
photography.
Ellie Briscoe discovered Scottish Country Dancing in the San
Francisco Bay Area in 1977, after some years as a folk dancer. She took
her Teacher's Certificate at the TAC Summer School at St. Catharines in
1982, and has taught at workshops across North America and in Japan. Her
favorite aspects of SCD are the music and how it drives the covering and
phrasing, the teamwork, and the way people grin when they “get it.”
In "real life," Ellie is Assistant Director of the National Geographic
Society Library in Washington, DC, and likes indoor cats, outdoor birds, scuba diving,
and after-party sing-alongs.
You may reach Mel and Ellie
by email.
This page was last updated on November 11, 1999.
Melbourne Briscoe, Alexandria, Virginia; email:
mail@briscoe.com