Seaboard Celebration is a dance, storytelling and animation performance project being delivered by local dance artist Julia McGhee in collaboration with Isabella Dance, in the Seaboard Villages, Portmahomack and Tain in Easter Ross.  The project is funded by the Big Lottery Celebrate Fund and has been working in collaboration with local charity Seaboard Cares.

The idea behind the project is gathering stories about the sea from countries around the Commonwealth.  Stories about marine life that can be found in the waters around the Commonwealth: dolphins, whales, basking sharks, salmon, jelly fish, turtles and fish.

After school dance sessions are taking place in primary schools in the Seaboard, Tain and Portmahomack. Children from Craighill Primary, Hilton of Cadboll Primary and Tarbat Old Primary have the opportunity to be part of a dance company performing in a multi-media show in the Seaboard Memorial Hall in Balintore.  Dance sessions for Over 50s, taking place in the Seaboard Hall and Balintore Community Pavilion, are offering opportunities for older adults to be involved.  Community art workshops open to all ages and led by John McGeoch from Arts in Motion, were held in November in order to create sea life which will populate an animated aquarium.

Bringing together dance, visual art, storytelling and singing the project will culminate in a performance called ‘Life Aquatic’ on 6th-7th June 2015 at the Seaboard Memorial Hall, which will be filmed and then sent back to everyone who has contributed a story to the project. The idea is that we share our interpretation of the stories and show how they have inspired us to think about how our local environment connects to the rest of the world.