It's an Easter fair way to Strictly Inverness, says Louise!
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Strictly Inverness is going like a fair for some of the contestants – especially Louise Mainland at Kincraig.
She's just staged a swinging Easter fair in the community hall and was amazed at the way it all went.
"The weather was absolutely awful," she told the Strathy, "but people still turned out and they really got into the swing of things.
"So many of them said it was wonderful to be mixing together for the morning, catching up with each other's news and having a cuppa.
"And they also supported the cause wholeheartedly – despite the rain they were all out there finishing the treasure hunt, getting drenched and having a whale of a time, while others carried on supporting the stalls in the hall."
It was all for two great causes, in fact.
Louise (45) is manager at the Highland Hospice which stages the annual dancing challenge, as people from around the region put on their dancing shoes to put themselves through some gruelling training.
Like Louise, they are all determined to become proficient in the art in time for the big show.
"Oh we're all up on the dance floors in the night clubs and discos," she laughed, "but none of us actually know how to do it like the professionals! This is a real education for us all."
With the contest teaming her up with fellow mum Jenna Christie (37) of Inverness, Louise has helped make history, in one of the first ever same-sex partnerships the event has ever boasted. There are three this year, out of the 16 entered teams.
"I think it's great," she said, "to show that anyone can enjoy a dance with anyone else. My daughter, Mia, attends dancing school in Glasgow and she should know, as they all dance with everyone – it's simply about the enjoyment of sharing the artistry, skill and fun."
All the same, she conceded, it's a long haul preparing for the great Strictly Inverness showdown in May.
Jenna was originally set to take to the dance floor in the annual charity contest in May 2020 but the pandemic put a stop to that. She was urged to put herself forward for the area's answer to the mega-popular TV series by her dad Calum Macleod, when he was a patient at the Highland Hospice in Inverness.
Tragically, her father passed away from stomach and liver cancer in the hospice in October 2019.
Jenna explained: "While a patient there he encouraged me to apply for Strictly – then I'm sure got the staff to take him round to the fundraising offices in the building and hassle the staff to pick me!
"So I got accepted to take part in 2020, but my dad sadly passed away before knowing I had got in."
The 2020, sadly, went to pot with Covid and Strictly sadly had to be cancelled.
Now she, Louise and all the other contestants are dancing themselves crazy to make the most of their opportunity to raise crucial funding for the hospice, with Inverness Ice Centre also set to benefit.
