Comhairle Congratulates Laird Dance Academy on Incredible Achievements

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar would like to congratulate the Laird Dance Academy and its fantastic dancers for all they have achieved in recent weeks at the US and Australasian Open. The Benbecula based academy secured over forty medals in the Australasian open and is now home to the US Open Champion.

Last weekend saw the dancers compete in the US Open and 14 year old Carly Mackay has been confirmed as the US Open Champion from a field of hundreds of International dancers. Here is One of Carly’s Incredible Performances (Opens in a new window or downloads a file) from the weekend.The academy is still awaiting the rest of the results so hopefully there will be more good news soon.

Comhairle Convener, Norman A Macdonald said,  “It’s an unbelievable achievement, we’re absolutely delighted at what the school has achieved.  The Laird Dance Academy has now taken medals at World, European, National and International levels, a phenomenal achievement for a small school based in Benbecula.

Since lockdown they have been practicing in virtual classes run by Lorna from the kitchen in the house and competed in the Australasian Open a fortnight ago securing 10 Gold Medals, 17 Silver Medals, 24 Bronze medals and placed in 97 different competitions in total.

Lorna and the dancers in the school deserve every bit of credit for their hard work, dedication and their determination to succeed, even a global pandemic couldn’t stop them! Their persistence has certainly paid dividends and they have proved that hard work conquers all.”