Young Highland dancers in spotlight in New Yorker magazine’s latest short film which aims to show how they were missing Highland Games and other dance performances during the pandemic
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Five young Highland dancers from the Inverness area will appear in a short film by the New Yorker magazine.
It aims to show how they were missing Highland Games and other dance performances during the pandemic.
The casting call first went out last May and it was filmed in a number of Highland locations including Loch Ness.
Cheryl Heggie – who runs the Cheryl Heggie School of Dance – said she received an email from Gabrielle Lawrence, from People-file.com, asking if any of her pupils would like to attend the casting call.
She said the film-makers were looking for male and female Highland dancers aged between eight and 18 years old. She added: “It would interweave interviews with the children as they discussed how they felt about missing Highland Games and dance performances, how the last 18 months had affected them and also what dancing means to them in relation to their Scottish heritage.”
Ms Lawrence and another woman visited her Wednesday and Thursday classes, as well as other Highland Dance schools in the Inverness and Ross-shire area, took head shots and interviewed pupils who were interested in taking part.
Ms Heggie said: “We were delighted to find out that Faith and Victoria Soh, from Inverness, from the Cheryl Heggie School of Dance, received call backs to appear in the film.”
In addition Lachlan Douguid, from Inverness, and Beatrice and Francesca Finkler, from Cannich, from the Claire Bryce School of Highland Dancing, were also selected to appear in the film.
Filming took place in June and Robbie Lawrence, a photographer and director, came to meet them during one of their classes. She said: “His film crew filmed Victoria and Faith dancing at class and we spent the next few days filming in different locations around Inverness.
“The film followed the dancers in their separate lives, practising and talking about Highland Dance.
“It was a fantastic experience for students as it’s not every day you are asked to appear in a short film documentary.
“It is exciting to show our traditional Highland Dance to new audiences, especially those in America.”
• The video was released last month. For more information visit the New Yorker magazine's website.
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