Rancho residents will soon have the opportunity to kick off their holiday season in true Celtic style at a unique holiday concert that will raise funds to support young students at two local schools of cultural arts. This wonderful afternoon will feature bagpipers from the City of Sacramento Pipe Band Organization and Scottish dancers from Kyla Groeschel’s School of Highland Dance, as well as local Irish Dancers, a Celtic harpist and traditional Scottish and Irish vocals. Complementary drinks and refreshments will be served, Celtic jewelry will be available for sale, and there will be a raffle featuring many donations from generous local merchants.

The Sacramento Celtic Christmas Celebration and Fundraiser will be held at the Radisson Hotel (500 Leisure Lane Sacramento, California, 95815) on Sunday, December 7.  There will be two performances: 12 noon and 2:30 pm. Each performance will cost $15 per person or $125 per table (a table seats 10). Tickets must be purchased in advance, due to limited seating. Most of the performers are young people (ages 5 to 18) who devote many hours each week to perfecting their art and honoring their culture.

Fair Oaks Scottish Highland Dance teacher Kyla Groeschel commend the students in the program for all of their hard work and determination. “We have national champions, champions-in-training, and wee ones who are just learning to keep the beat, but who work as hard as their role models. I hope the community will turn out to support these really amazing kids.” Proceeds from this event will directly benefit these local bag-piping and Highland Dance students by helping to fund trips to competitions, costumes, etc. For additional information or to purchase tickets, contact Kyla Groeschel’s School of Highland Dance at (916) 849-0000

One of the dancers is 17 year old Rancho Cordova resident Devon Yip. Devon has been dancing her whole life, but started the Highland Dance program at just four years old. Her hard work and dedication to dance have been worth it as she has won numerous awards from the United States and abroad. At the age of 12, she represented the Western Region at the US Championships and has been qualifying ever since. She won her first Championship at age 15. This summer, Devon took second at the North American Championships in Denver. She was also on the team that took the gold medal in the choreography competition at the US Championships.

Devon’s dancing instructor, Kyla Groeschel is noticeably proud of her student. “To describe in a few words the exhilarating experience of being a Highland Dancer is just impossible.  Our dances take, at most, three or four minutes to perform.  Yet, the actual time is has taken Devon to prepare for each performance has been years – years of training, dedication, study, joy, tears, sore muscles, pulled tendons, and a competitive spirit which makes Devon want to be the best in her class.  It is not a matter of just moving the feet to the music - the feet need to “sing” to what the piper plays”.