Kamloops playing host to world's largest highland dance competition

The world’s largest highland dance competition has brought about 700 dancers from across Canada and the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland to the Tournament Capital.

The 2024 ScotDance Canada Championship Series kicked off July 7 and will be running until Thursday at the Sandman Centre, marking the first time the competition has been held in B.C. since 2014.

Championship co-chair Cheryl Rosbourough said the event features “the best highland dancers” in Canada and across the world over the five-day event.

“This is a national event that travels east to west, year to year. We're the lucky host this year,” Rosbourough said.

“Our Canadian champions that are coming from each province will represent their province in the national championship.”

Championship co-chair Lorena Harrison said an estimated 700 highland dancers will be attending the event, and around 3,000 people are expected to pack the building eat day.

Dancers between the ages of four to 40 compete over the course of the event.

2023 Adult Canadian Champion Alessandra Bruce-Fuoko explained the dancers are judged on several factors, including technique, timing and presentation.

“When it gets to the higher levels, that’s when it gets really tricky. It’s a lot about how much stamina you have throughout the dance, who can do it effortlessly and things like that,” she said.

Kamloops-based dancer and this year’s BC Adult Champion, Jennifer Watt, said she though Highland dancing is at a “pretty high level” in Canada.

“Sometimes a lot of us go over to Scotland for the worlds or to do other competitions, so we’re all kind of friends in the community,” Watt said.

“It’s not really like one country is better than another, we’re all kind of on par.”

Watt said this was the twelfth championship she had attended, while Bruce-Fuoko said it was her fifteenth. They said the had both been dancing for over 20 years.

“We love just kind of getting up on that stage and feeding off the energy of the crowd and when you've been doing something for so long, you have to have something that keeps you going and keeps you coming back,” said Bruce-Fuoko.

The 48th annual Canadian championship will be held Tuesday starting at 8 a.m.

Organizers said interested spectators are welcome to attend and can pay at the door.