Dance students from Rosyth, Kelty and Crossgates packed up their dancing shoes and headed over to Disneyland Paris last week.
After two years of preparations and postponements 17 girls from Centre Stage Performing Arts finally boarded their flights to Disneyland Paris on February 14. Set to lead the pre-parade at the park the youngsters have been waiting for this special opportunity for quite some time.
Centre Stage Performing Arts principal, Louise Ferrier said: "The trip was actually meant to be last year but it was postponed due to covid. It was a little touch and go whether it would go ahead so it was a little bit stressful but all kids and the families got out there and represented Scotland in the pre parade."
The pre-parade travels through the park and introduces the Disney performers and this year was the first time in two years that it has gone ahead having been cancelled previously due to the pandemic.
While it went ahead this year it didn't all go to plan, the parade was almost cancelled due to a lack of performers after various people had to drop out due to covid. It was the Centre Stage entourage that saved the day.
Dance mums, aunts and siblings all stepped up to the plate and learned the routine last minute, meaning a total of 63 members of the Centre Stage family performed.
Louise said: "There wasn’t enough kids, they had to pull out because of covid so our dance mums, aunties and siblings all learnt the parade dance, got a costume and saved the day."
"It's a special time that will live in their heart because all of our dance mums, aunties, siblings and dancers all opened the first pre parade back."
"It was like a Disney dream, my own mum who is 65, she even done the parade. Its just such a nice memory to have."
A fun filled four days had the dancers performing to 15,000 people in the pre parade and between 800-1,000 in their very own performance at the Videopolis Theatre in the park. They also got to have some time backstage with the professionals, attending workshops.
Now that they're back from Paris, they're focusing on what's next for Centre Stage Performing arts. With local performances and competitions to keep them busy until their next big trip, Louise told the Times: "We’ll be dancing somewhere in the world next, we just don’t know where yet!"
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