Strictly Come Cèilidh Dancing
Happy New Year, Glasgow Letter readers! There are lots of exciting events coming up in January and February throughout the city.
One that is worth mentioning immediately is Strictly Come Cèilidh Dancing on Friday January 10 in the Glasgow University Union.
This event has been organised by Donald “Maroot” MacLeod in aid of the Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust.
There will be 10 “celebrity” dancers who will swap partners between each dance and three “celebrity” judges who will mark each competitor after each dance.
I use the word celebrity loosely, as you can probably imagine! I am one of the judges but I am beginning to question my qualifications for the role after finding out that one of my fellow judges is Rachel MacLaggan – a professional Highland Dancer and founder member of Flings and Things who regularly dance with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers!
Our third judge is my good pal, Darren MacLean, who (thankfully) I feel is more at my own level of dancing professionalism. The old joke about being a champ dancer or a damn chancer springs to mind!
Competitors on the evening will be Mànran’s Ewen Henderson, Skerryvore’s Martin Gillespie, Sian’s Ceitlin LR Smith, Trail West’s Seonaidh MacIntyre, Alba Choir’s Joy Dunlop, Iain Beggs and Mairi MacLennan from BBC Alba series Bannan, Shona Masson (presenter on BBC Alba), Alana MacInnes (who found fame years ago with “the dress”), and Lorne MacDougall – possibly the biggest celebrity of all of us having featured in Doctor Who, Brave, Still Game, Whisky Galore, and Strictly Come Dancing… the actual Strictly Come Dancing as opposed to this cèilidh version!
The most important thing is that this event is fundraising for a very good cause so will hopefully attract a big audience. Tickets are £25 and are available by contacting Donald on donniemaroot@ hotmail.co.uk