Miss Olevia Ireland arrived in Portland around 1909 and first worked as an actress. By 1913, she had given up the theater, taking a position as a dance instructor at Montrose Ringler's Dreamland Academy (located at SW 2nd and Morrison). Also, Miss Ireland and fellow Dreamland instructor, Norman Whiting, gave exhibition dances together as partners on various stages around the city. Ireland and Whiting were among those who introduced to Portland the Tango, Hesitation Waltz and One-Step. The partners' exhibitions and instructions continued with Ringler when he moved his operations in 1914 from Dreamland Academy to his newly completed Cotillion Hall (now the Crystal Ballroom).
After about a year at Ringler's Cotillion Hall, Ireland and Whiting struck out on their own, opening the Whiting-Ireland Dancing Academy on the second floor of the Alisky Building on SW Morrison Street. In 1916, Whiting followed his father's footsteps, going into a career in printing [as recent as 1958, Whiting was working at The Oregon Journal as a proofreader]. Without her partner, Miss Ireland joined another local dancing school run by James A. Randall. This move was a stepping stone for opening her own school.
In 1917, Olevia Ireland established a dancing school in downtown Portland on the 5th floor of the Dekum Building. She advertised the venture as offering lessons in both "ball room and Esthetic dancing." She noted that "teaching of beginners in ball room dancing [was] a specialty, personal attention given," and that private and class lessons were given daily.
A September 1921 ad for "The Dance Studio" in the Journal states:
"Miss Ireland, pupil of the celebrated master, Stepheno Mascagno, announces the opening of Dancing Classes in Ballet technique and Up-to-Date Ballroom Dances on Thursday, September the 15th and thereafter,
Beginners' Class:
Mondays, 7:30pm
Thursdays, 7:30pm
Advance Class:
Mondays 9:00pm
Thursdays, 9:00pm
Eight Lessons $6.00
Ballet Technique
Children and Ladies
Children's classes Saturday mornings at 10:30 o'clock
Class Room, 509 Dekum Bldg., Washington at Third
(Journal 9/11/21, sec. 4: 2)
Miss Ireland continued teaching in her Dekum Building studio through 1923. After that date, her name no longer appears in Portland City Directories.
McMinnville Telephone Register: September 28, 1923:
"Miss Olivia Ireland will be here to start her dancing class in Ballet and Ball Room dancing October 6th, at Elberton Hotel."
[This is exactly the time when Maxine Brooks remembers starting her lessons with Miss Ireland at the Hotel Elberton (now Hotel Oregon)]
About the author: Tim is the McMenamins Historian.
What’s the name of the Kennedy brewery? The Concordia Brewery, named for the surrounding neighborhood. Which beer is our best-selling ale? Hammerhead, of course. Have a pint or two today! How many McMenamins are there in the Seattle area? Three – Mill Creek, Six Arms and Queen Anne. “Give me a woman who truly loves beer and I will conquer the world.” – Kaiser Wilhelm II The Centzon-Totochtin (“Infinite Rabbits”) was an Aztec group that represented the ways humans are affected by intoxication. Does each McMenamins pub brew beer? Nope – only our brewpubs and breweries do. They supply our other spots. Give it up for St. Arnold, the patron saint of brewers! His miracle was a tankard of ale that never ran dry… Put him on the invite list. What was the very first McMenamins pub, opened by Mike and Brian McMenamin? The Barley Mill on SE Hawthorne in Portland. “We borrowed golf from Scotland as we borrowed whiskey. Not because it is Scottish, but because it is good.” -- Horace Hutchinson “Wine is bottled poetry.” -- Robert Louis Stevenson McMenamins has a full-time historian on staff. He collects stories, photos, anecdotes and more about McMenamins spots, past and present. Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII, was said to be able to drink any man under the table. You show ‘em, Betsy! At the Grand Lodge, the mosaics in the basement hallways were inspired by the work of Spanish artist Antonio Gaudi. “Wine is bottled poetry.” -- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#1 Mike
Interesting story. There is a long story on dance in Portland, both social (ballrom) and concert (ballet and tap, and more recently other dance forms). Many of thee teachers and performers (aren't all dance teacher ex-performers looking for more consistent income?) knew each other quite well and built a dance community that still operates today. The Billings' started a dance school in 1932 that continues today. That same year, Bill Christensen arrived in Portland and boosted the concert dance scene by working with existing dance teachers and performers, including Edith Varney and Maud Ainsworth (dance teachers circa 1910), and Katherine Laidlaw. Christensen trained Janet Reed, who danced with Jerome Robbins and eventually moved to New York to dance with Balanchine, and Jacqueline Martin Schumacher, who returned to teach in Portland and become a founder of the current Oregon Ballet Theatre. Other long-time dance instructors include Sally Mack, and the Stites family. It's nice to know the history of teh Crystal, and how the social and concert arts connect this community across what are now centuries as well as physical distance.