Celebrate Robbie Burns Night Jan. 23
Photo submitted Dancers from the MacKenzie School of Dance are ready to help people from Port Alberni celebrate all things Scottish, starting with famed poet Robbie Burns.
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The Port Alberni Highland Dance Association will host its 27th annual Robbie Burns Night this Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Italian Canadian Society Hall.
The association will celebrate all things Scottish — haggis, music, and dance — as well as the birth, life and works of Robbie Burns.
The address to the haggis is one of Burns’ most famous poems, written in true Scottish brogue.
Entertainment at the Burns night will include a demonstration of Scottish country dance by the Scottish Country Dancers; pipe and drum music by the West Coast Highlanders Pipe and Drum Band and Highland Dance performed by the many dancers trained and choreographed by their teacher, Patti MacKenzie of the MacKenzie School of Dance.
The Highland dancers range in ages from five to 16 years old.
Highland dance is an ancient tradition of Scotland, but its beginnings are shrouded in mystery, lost to the mists of legend.
One of the oldest legends is the origin of the Highland Fling. It is said this dance was created by a young boy. One day, while he was out hunting, he witnessed a stag leaping and playing on a hillside. The sight so moved him that he could not bring himself to kill the stag.
When he returned home without any meat, his family asked him why. He could not describe what he saw, so instead he danced, his hands held aloft like the antlers of the stag.
According to long military tradition, the kings and chiefs of Scotland used Highland dance as a test for which men would join their personal retinue. Dancing tested them for strength, agility, stamina and accuracy.
Later, Scottish regiments used Highland dance to keep troops in shape and battle ready. For example, in a six step fling, the dancer jumps vertically 192 times, the equivalent of running a mile.
Rumour has it that there may even be an appearance by Robbie Burns himself.
Tickets for Robbie Burns Night are $25 and available at Echo Centre and Somass Drugs.
