Ethel Markall
Ethel Markall owned Markall's School of Dance, a dance studio in Thunder Bay, Ontario for the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.
At 14:00 on Saturday 5 September 1971, her "Ethel Markall School of Dancing and Baton Twirlers" performed at the Nipigon Legion Fall Fishing Festival Parade. Later that evening, at 20:00, in Nipigon Arena, there was a variety show featuring "Ernie Dojack and his entertainers from Thunder Bay... Mr. Dojack has performed in Nipigon before and was very well-received." Ernie Dojack is the father of Katie Dojack, who attended Pine Street School with Michael Currie. [1]
Family
Ethel married Fred Markall and had five children:
- Bob Markall, who married a Leslie Hodgson on 1 July 1970. Bob who taught at Ethel's dance studio, co-owned it after her death, and died in 2005 of ALS. Bob had a son Dallas Markall who married Penny and had granddaughter Taryn Markall.
- John Markall, who married Lucy.
- Barb, who married Chic Hutcheon.
- Joyce, who married Dick Paavi, and had Wendy Holmquist, who later took over Ethel's dance studio. Wendy's daughter Melissa Holmquist is also a teacher as of 2020.
- Peggy, who married Hugh Groombridge.
Legacy
- Ethel's son Bob Markall owned the studio with Ethel's granddaughter Wendy Holmquist after Ethel died.
- Ethel's granddaughter Wendy Holmquist founded local studio Dance Dynamics in 2000 (still active as of 2020)
- Ethel's granddaughter Quinn Gauley was a dancer and teacher circa 2019 at local school Dream Dance Co.
- Cheryl Scott, a native of Thunder Bay, Ontario received her early training under the tutelage of Karen Jardine [2] (nee Wang) at Experience Dance, and at Markall’s School of Dance. [3]
- As of 2019 there was a scholarship in Ethel's name at the Lakehead Festival of Music and Arts, as well as one in her son Bob's name [4]
Sources
Quinn has been dancing since the very young age of 2. She began dancing at her Grandmothers studio Markall’s School of Dance and Baton.
At Markall’s Quinn trained and did exams in Checcetti, BDTA Exams (Boston Dance Teachers Association), Dance Educators of America and Al Gilbert Exams. This past fall Quinn traveled to Calgary, AB where she took an Acrobatic Arts certification course and exams. Quinn is thrilled to say it was a successful trip and she is now an Acrobatic Arts Certified Teacher!
As a young competitive dancer Quinn won many awards and scholarships at local and out of town competitions. Some of these include, Adjudicators Choice Award at the Lakehead Music Festival, as well as top senior acro and lyrical scholarships for 4 years in a row.
Quinn began teaching dance at the age of 15 and found a new passion for developing dance ability in young dancers competitively and for the pure enjoyment of dance. At the age of 21 Quinn was hired by Club Med Cancun in Mexico to teach their resort dance program and perform in the nightly shows. They performed many different shows including, La Revue, Moulin Rouge and Titanic in which Quinn had the lead dance role as Rose.
When moving back to Thunder Bay Quinn met up with Heather and became apart of the Dream Dance Team since it’s doors opened in 2006 teaching competitive acro for the studio. Since teaching for Dream Dance Quinn’s acro routines have won many first place honours, high scoring awards and speciality awards locally and at out of town competitions.
— Dream Dance Co biography [5]