Ass1.Azman.2011
Iman Azman
January 7th 2011
Dancing the night away was Laurel Walsh’s idea of the perfect summer. That was how she spent the last few months before attending Carleton University.
“It was the best summer of my life, nothing has come close,” said Walsh.
As part of a highland dancing company, Walsh performed nightly shows for crowds of thousands in a castle on the high hills of Scotland.
But her most memorable audience was the Queen of England and her grandsons. Walsh danced for the royal family at a Scottish festival and remembers wanting to be swept away by the princes.
“I expected Prince William to just scoop me up to live with him and that would be the path of my life!” laughed Walsh.
Walsh began dancing in her ghillies, the traditional Scottish footwear, since she was two years old. Inspired by the dancers and music at highland games, Walsh credits her passion to her great grandfather.
“Not a lot of people like bagpipe music, but since I loved my great grandfather so much, and he loved the music, it fell right into place,” she said.
After 16 years of dancing to the music her great grandfather loved, Walsh retired her ghillies after her memorable summer in Scotland. “It was the peak of my dancing, nothing can top it,” she added.
However Walsh continues to help young children master their ghillies to the drone of bagpipes. “It is very rooted in history and tradition. The dances we do are from the 14th century and I don’t want to see it get lost,” said Walsh.
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