Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 11/00) - For a small group of Yellowknife dancers, attending the largest highland dancing competition in the world was as exciting as it was frightening.

Over 1,250 competitors worldwide met in the West Edmonton Mall in early July to take part in Scotdance 2000.

The Northwest Territories was represented by dancers Shelby Skinner, Jessica Fournier, Daniele Rocher, Jocelyne Lessard, Katherine Silcock, and teachers Karen Gochnauer and Raycine Spence.

"That was the largest group to attend (a competition) in recent memory," says Spence, who has been teaching highland dancing in Yellowknife for five years.

"It can be very competitive," she says about gatherings such as the one held in Edmonton.

"For four kids it was their first time competing. They were shocked by the whole situation. But they did amazing. They hit their personal bests. It's definitely the best learning experience they could ever have."

Spence, who is of Scottish descent, has been dancing since adulthood.

"My mother never drove and lessons were always across town in Saskatoon. All of the cousins were doing it. When I could drive and when I could pay for it myself, I started."

There are always about 10 to 15 highland dancers -- a physically demanding form of dance -- in Yellowknife.

Spence says one of her students came to her once complaining about the size of her calves.

"You need strong legs," she says of the dance that's full of leaps, jumps and whirls.

"If you're going to dance, you're going to have big calves."

Spence says all her students were dancing hard prior to the competition. And that meant at least three hours of practice a week.

"Because of the number of competitors, our dancers found themselves going calf to calf with large classes, sometimes 150 other girls -- making it hard to place."

The Yk dancers were certainly impressive and one even came home with a medal. Rocher, who was determined to win, placed fifth in the Flora Macdonald Fancy competition.