WATCH ABOVE: Gil Tucker catches up with a young Alberta dancer who won second at the World Highland Dance Championships.
CALGARY – A young dancer from Okotoks, Alta. is celebrating a great showing at the World Highland Dance Championships in Scotland over the weekend.
Seventeen-year-old Melissa Carnegie took home the first runner-up trophy at the dance championships, finishing second among a field of 100 competitors in her age group.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “There’ve been a lot of high quality dancers from Calgary and it’s nice to be part of that.”
The competition comes just a few weeks after Carnegie finished in top spot at the Canadian championships in London, Ont.
It’s part of carrying on a long family tradition: her mom is a piper and highland dancer, and her grandmother made kilts and helped run a pipe band.
“It’s fantastic,” said Carnegie’s long-time dance teacher, Laureen Geib. “It’s nice to see a girl that works so hard at her craft do so well.”
Carnegie starts classes next week at the University of Calgary, hoping her kinesiology studies will lead to a career as a physiotherapist.
But she’s by no means hanging up her dancing shoes: she’s planning on competing again next year in the adult category at the world championships in Scotland.