Coronavirus: Highland Dancers keep it reel with online concert beamed into Dundee care home

Highland dancers have stepped up to stage a virtual concert in a bid to stay on their toes for the return of a competition season decimated by the pandemic.

Dancers from four Courier country schools got together for the virtual gig, which was also beamed into a Dundee care home for residents there to enjoy.

The Zoom gathering was dreamt up by Dundee Highland Dancing teacher Lesley Bowman after the Covid-19 outbreak brought an immediate halt to classes just as many youngsters were gearing up for a busy season.

Scotland’s Highland Games programme has also been put on hold in a move which could cost the tourism economy tens of millions of pounds.

Highland dancing features at many games, but official bodies also stage standalone championship events which draw hundreds of competitors from home and abroad.

The calendar’s blue riband competition is the late August World Championships which are part of the Cowal Highland Gathering.

It attracts hundreds of dancers from around the globe and the sport is keeping its fingers crossed that the event may still go ahead this year.

Lesley said: “The first championship was held at the end of February, but since then everything has just stopped for the dancers and everything is cancelled right up to the end of July.

“The dancers are so used to being with each other in class and at competitions so a group of schools decided to come together to organise a digital concert.

“We thought it would be good for the dancers to keep in touch socially with all their friends and keep doing something they love.”

Pupils from the Bowman School were joined by those of Loraine Waddell in Forfar, the Walker School in Stonehaven and Fiona Gallacher in Leven for the online concert.

Lesley’s 88-year-old mother, Betty Bowman and fellow residents of Harestane Care Home in Dundee were also able to enjoy performances including the Highland Fling, Sword Dance, Irish Jig and Sailor’s Hornpipe.

“We had dancers from the age of four all the way up to champion dancers who compete at the highest level,” said Lesley.

The line-up included international dancer Catherine Dwyer from Atlanta, Georgia, a 13-year-old pupil of Loraine Waddell in Forfar who she regularly teaches by Zoom.