A TEAM of Helensburgh dancers is gearing up to represent Scotland at a prestigious competition.
The Margaret Rose School of Dance has been selected to compete at the Dance World Cup.
More than 120,000 competitors from 62 nations compete at their country qualifiers and at the world finals each year.
Margaret MacInnes, who has run the Margaret Rose School of Dance for more than 40 years, started up the popular dance school in 1972, at the age of just 19.
The Margaret Rose School of Dance has grown into one of the leading Highland dance groups in the country, with pupils achieving success at local, national and international level.
The Helensburgh dancers were chosen after a difficult period where almost all their training has had to be done online.
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Margaret told the Advertiser: “The reason we decided to audition was because Highland dancing competitions haven’t started back yet, whereas stage dancing competitions have.
“The dancers are representing Scotland under the folklore part of the festival.
“We’ve got a few solos, two duets and three group dances.
“It will be the first time the girls will compete in a stage dancing competition doing Scottish Highland dancing as representatives of Scotland.
“Every dance we entered was accepted for the finals so we’re very proud of that.
“The girls worked hard learning the dances for the auditions by Zoom and it was great getting together in a garden to film the dance.”
The Dance World Cup was due to be held in Spain, but is now being held at the Telford International Centre in Shropshire because of Covid-19 restrictions.
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The 2020 event was postponed because of the pandemic, but the Telford venue will host both the 2020 and 2021 competitions back-to-back between Monday, August 9 and Thursday, August 19.
Margaret, who was made a British Empire Medal recipient in the New Year honours list in December 2019 in recognition of her services to Highland dancing and the community in Helensburgh, added: “The girls are very excited as they’ve just received their Team Scotland tracksuits.
“It’s something we’ve never entered before and I just wanted to give them an event to look forward to because they were all very disappointed that the Highland Games were cancelled this year.
“It’s a shame for the kids who are trying to keep their motivation up.
“Usually at this time we are out in Canada competing against dancers from all over the world.
“The girls have worked so hard throughout the pandemic and I am so proud of their hard work when they couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.”
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