A local highland dancer recently got the chance to show off her skills as part of an elite scholarship competition in Miami, Fla.
Kayla Ainscough, 12, is the first student of instructor Jeanne Small's to be nominated for a British Association of Teachers of Dancing Scholarship.
Kayla and her parents, along with Small and her husband, headed south at the end of October. There Kayla did a theory exam, where she had to demonstrate her knowledge, and danced a solo choreography piece aboard a cruise ship.
“It was good except during the hurricane,” Kayla said. She was performing her solo piece on the ship while the tail end of Hurricane Sandy rocked the seas.
“I was actually taking the pictures braced against a pole,” said Teresa, Kayla's mother.
Kayla was one of only 118 junior candidates selected for the finals held across North America. Only 58 chose to go to Florida for the event.
Teresa said the scholarship would have covered her daughter's dance fees for a few years.
The examination involved keeping participants on their toes.
“They'd just take random steps and put them together to see if you could adapt,” Kayla said. She said they even asked for highland steps to be put to hip-hop music to see how the dancers would do.
On top of the class and her solo, Kayla had to do a written exam.
Kayla's been doing highland dance for five years, ever since she spotted it at a registration night.
“It just looked cool,” she said. It also honours part of her heritage.
“We're part Scottish,” she said.
She takes lessons at the Macleod of Lewis Dancers with Small, who has about 28 students.
Small said the trip gave Kayla the chance to meet other dancers from across the continent.
“Kayla actually got honours on her exam,” she said of the test that got Kayla to Florida.
Small said Kayla's the first student of hers that has taken theory at the Grade 2 level.
She was thrilled when she got the word Kayla had been chosen to go to the scholarship event.
“I was pretty excited,” she said.
Kayla said when she got the call from her teacher it was hard to understand at first.
“When she first called she was talking so fast we could barely understand her,” she said.
She's planning on continuing to dance, including a trip to Scotland next year with the Red Deer Region Highland Dancing Association.
“For three years we've been fundraising for this trip,” said Teresa. The dancers will get to visit Edinburgh and Stirling as part of their voyage.
As for the trip down to Miami, it helped teach Kayla to dance through her mistakes.
“I've learned you never give up, if you mess up in a dance, keep dancing … if you just stop you're not going to learn from it,” Kayla said.
