A school of dancers who have performed around the world from the chill of Nova Scotia and heat of Trinidad, busked outside the Pompidou Centre in Paris and celebrated the Queen’s 80th birthday at Balmoral have reached new heights.
Students from the Gordon School of Dancing have just returned from performing on the Great Wall of China during a three week cultural visit in which they represented Scotland, and in particular Angus.
“One of our pipers addressed the haggis during our visit to the wall. It was absolutely amazing,” said dance school principal Robina Addison. “I hope it’s not a once in a lifetime experience.”
The dancers along with a couple of pipers, a fiddler and an accordionist were part of an Angus Council trade and cultural delegation and represented Scotland at the eighth Chinese International Folk Art Festival.
They were flying the flag even before they got to the festival venue at Suzhou and Shanghai, giving a first glimpse of Scotland to audiences of thousands in Angus’ sister city of Yantai.
“We were the first Scottish group to participate in the festival and joined performers from Egypt, the USA, the Czech Republic, the Cook Islands, Spain, Cuba, South Africa and Korea, as well as the host country,” said Mrs Addison.
“Many of our concerts were in rural areas. Wherever we went the dancers were swamped by Chinese people taking photographs and wanting autographs.
“Because we were blondes, redheads and brunettes we were quite a novelty. The closing and awards ceremony was at the National Grand Theatre in Beijing where we were following in the footsteps of famous performers such as Pavarotti.
“We were treated like stars.”