Provost to congratulate young Inverness dancer on Canadian triumph

The Provost of Inverness and Area Cllr Helen Carmichael will tomorrow (Wednesday 18 July 2018) meet Inverness Highland Dancer Lily Kelman to congratulate her on her latest international dancing achievements.
 
Lily (11) from the Fraser School of Highland Dance has recently had huge success at the ScotDance Canada Championships Series in Calgary Alberta when she secured her 5th championship title making her the 11yrs Open Canadian Champion beating dancers from all over the world.
 
Lily won all 3 categories entered, Highland competition, Premiership National Championship and Open Highland Championship which took place between the 1st and 4thy July. Winning all 3 was a great achievement and a very special moment for Lily in her dancing career. As well as her Canadian title she is also UKA, European, North of Scotland (closed) and North east Scotland Champion and has been runner up in a number of other Championships throughout the year so far.
 
Lily’s younger sister Grace (9) also competed at the ScotDance series in the intermediate section where she came home with 5 special medals out of a tough group of dancers.
 
Provost Carmichael said: “It is fitting that we celebrate Lily and Grace’s achievements during The Year of Young People 2018 which is all about inspiring young people, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contribution to communities and creating opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and globally.
 
“Lily is an excellent example of what our young people can achieve with commitment and sheer endeavour. While I congratulate Lily on her personal achievements I also commend the roll that she is playing through her participation in international Highland Dance competitions as a young ambassador for Inverness and the Highlands.”
 
She added: “Before Lily and Grace left for Canada, I was delighted to donate Inverness Town House pin badges to both girls so that they could take part in the pin exchange which took place at the start of the Championship series. The girls acted as ambassadors for Inverness exchanging pins between dancers of many different nationalities. I understand that the Town House pin proved very popular!
 
Lily’s mother Yvonne who accompanied the girls to the Championships said: “A staggering 980 dancers were entered into the ScotDance competition as a whole and from that 10 girls in total came from Inverness. 7 from the Claire Bryce School of Highland Dance and 3 from the Fraser School of Dance both Inverness. All girls did amazingly well and came home with a haul of medals and trophies.”