The Scottish First Minister has earned herself a new legion of fans after taking the leap and breaking out into an awkward dance with a group of young people in Dumfries.
Nicola Sturgeon was in the town on Monday where she helped to launch the global-first initiative, Year of Young People, a major programme of events and activities to celebrate Scotland’s youth in 2018.
READ MORE: Salmond insists Sturgeon poised to press button on independence referendum
With Pharrell Williams’ Happy blaring in the background - against a backdrop of disco lights - the leader of Scotland joined a local youth group to be taken through a health and wellbeing drama class.
Staying in one spot, an uncomfortable-looking Ms Sturgeon swayed slightly from side to side before firing a side glance at the camera.
Year of the Young People posted the short clip on Twitter, captioning it: “Strictly Come Dancing - Year of Young People special!”
Strictly Come Dancing - Year of Young People special! 'The Toon' youth group take @NicolaSturgeon through health & wellbeing drama. #YOYP2018 🤗 pic.twitter.com/4fVKUCY16M
— Year of Young People (@YOYP2018) November 13, 2017
Being a good sport, however, Ms Sturgeon poked fun at herself.
Retweeting the clip, she said: “Ever wondered what the female equivalent of ‘dad dancing’ looks like? Now you know!”
Ever wondered what the female equivalent of ‘dad dancing’ looks like? Now you know! #YOYP2018 https://t.co/tyiJxoasFr
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) November 13, 2017
The clip gathered much praise from other users of the site, having amassed just over 3,000 reactions in almost 24 hours.
One user said, “Brilliant. Well done you for being able to laugh at yourself,” while another added, “Good on you, nothing wrong with a wee sway side to side.”
READ MORE: Opponents to Scottish independence 'outstrip Yes voters four-fold'
Another wrote: “Oh Nicola. I love you. You’re everything modern politics needs; progressive, advancing social organisation, economic development, science and technology and, now, the art of dance, all vital to the improvement of the human condition.”
While at the launch, Ms Sturgeon described the project as an opportunity to shine a light on “the fantastic contribution” young people make to life in Scotland.
READ MORE: Katie Hopkins attacks Nicola Sturgeon and SNP in call to Scotland to vote Tory
She added: “The Year of Young People will give young people a new platform and new opportunities for their voices to be heard in all parts of our society and hopefully help to foster a better understanding, cooperation, and respect between generations.
“The talents of our young people span the length and breadth of the country; evident in the great programme they have helped to put together. I want to thank all of the partners involved in supporting this initiative, who have helped to put together what I am sure will be a wonderful celebration of young people in 2018.”
To learn more about the project, head to yoyp2018.scot.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel