STIRLING HIGHLAND DANCERS

DANCING

For over 20 years I have specialised in piping for Highland dancers, and can supply up to 8 dancers of high quality in the 20-30 age group. All of them have been dancing for years and have won medals at Highland Games competitions, and the dancers have included the 1996 under-18 World Champion, the 2000 Scottish National champion, a past Scottish Champion, the 2001 Scottish Junior Champion, the 2010 Scottish National Champion, and 2 Highland dancing teachers, one of whom is also a dancing adjudicator as well as being a past Champion of both Scotland and Canada.

We put on a high quality show which is popular for business and corporate functions as a 20-30 minute cabaret show of Highland and National dancing ( including costume changes) e.g. after dinner or between speeches and the start of general dancing, etc., and at Burns-theme dinners for visitors and colleagues from abroad.

One of the dancers is also a choreographer who composes dances based on traditional Highland steps, and so we can provide a wider variety of dances than simply the standard competition Highland dances if desired.

I also play for our audience to do ceilidh dances such as Gay Gordons and Canadian Barn Dance after the dancers have done a short demo of them.

Our programme is totally flexible. For example, in 2007 I finished a contract which had run for 9 consecutive years due to public demand at the Stirling Highland hotel to supply dancers once a week for 6 months of the year and play for them, the format there being that guests are piped in to dinner, the haggis is piped in and out, and we then do 3 slots of Highland, National, and Irish dancing respectively, complete with costume changes, one slot after each course of the meal, with an introduction of the dancers and a brief explanation of the themes behind the dances. This has proved very popular, as the dancing provides a talking point and stimulates conversation, as well as contributing to a more leisurely meal.

In January 2009 and again in 2010 3 dancers and I did 2 shows at the Premier Suite, Cannock, Staffordshire, on the Saturday night and Sunday lunchtime to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns.

In January 2008 I was booked to bring 4 dancers to Aston University, Birmingham, where we put on a ½ hour piping and dancing show, followed by a fun 'Strictly Come Highland Dance' competition.

8 years ago I was retained by an airline to fly 12 dancers to the Grosvenor House Hotel in London where we put on a piping and dancing show for 900 guests. Other venues for similar but smaller types of shows have included Glenturret Distillery Crieff, the Carlton Highland hotel in Edinburgh, the Ramada Jarvis hotels in Gourock and Edinburgh, the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the Golden Lion hotel in Stirling.

In January 2005 4 dancers and I  put on a similar style of show at the Hilton Metropole hotel, Birmingham, to 750 guests, and in June 2006 a larger group did a show to 8,000 participants in the first-ever charity Moonwalk in Scotland and were re-booked to do another in Edinburgh in June 2007 in front of 10,000 walkers.

We have also done shows in Odoorn, Holland, and Stavanger and Egersund, Norway.

To contact me, please either phone 01786 - 474394 or email: alan.prentice@btopenworld.com