They say that life begins at 50.
And, for a group of people who have been flocking to dance classes for the over-50s, their hard work in the studio has paid off with an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Scottish Ballet has announced the launch of a new community performance group to reward their hard work.
The Scottish Ballet Elders Company (SBEC) will debut a new piece at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.
The company was formed as a result of the success of Scottish Ballet's Regenerate programme of dance classes for the over 50's, which have 90 members attending weekly classes.
Auditions were held in March where 15 dancers from the various groups were chosen.
All the woman selected come from Glasgow or the surrounding areas and range in ages from 58 to 77.
One of those chosen to be part of the new company was 70-year old Edith Walsh from Maryhill.
She believes the new group will provide inspiration to other elderly people thinking of taking part in a new activity.
Mrs Walsh said:"I never got the opportunity to dance as a child so now I can't believe that I get the chance to dance with Scottish Ballet. I started 8 years ago when I joined the Regenerate class.
"I wasn't sure whether to audition for the Scottish Ballet Elders Company. I thought 'maybe I'm getting old' but everyone told me if you don't audition then you will regret it.
"I am looking forward to the challenge. I think it will be challenging but exhilarating. My family and friends think it is amazing that I am doing this and will be performing at the Fringe."
Initial rehearsals have begun with professional choreographers at their Scottish Ballet's base at the Glasgow Tramway studios to work on Ballet technique and in the coming weeks dancers will work with principal choreographer Winnifred Jamieson to develop their piece for the Edinburgh festival.
Catherine Cassidy, Scottish Ballet's Associate Director of Education, said: "We are delighted to launch Scottish Ballet's first performance company of elder community dancers.
"Following a series of weekly ballet and contemporary technique classes, dancers will now begin working with choreographer Winifred Jamieson towards the creation of a new piece which will be performed at Dance Base during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe."
Edinburgh elder dance group Dance Base's Prime, will join the company on a four venue tour across Scotland in October.
Scottish Ballet's Regenerate classes are aimed at all over 50s with an interest in dance, the groups aim to provide exercise and well-being to participants but the SBEC represents the first performance aspect of the project.
The project has a closed waiting list of 80 people waiting for a space on the classes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article