After a three-year break, Marielle Lesperance recently returned home to Nova Scotia from Scotland as an eight-time highland dance champion.
While victory is nothing new for Lesperance, this latest one one means a lot, since she’s the first mother to win the World Highland Dancing Championships as part of the Cowal Highland Gathering in western Scotland.
“Athletes know when you’re competing at a top level, you have a specific way of doing things and a set schedule the day of the competition, and when you have a baby, that goes out the window,” said Lesperance.
Less than a year before the competition, Lesperance had her daughter, Margaux, causing the new mom to transform her training.
“I was there nursing her before doing my warm up and trying to fit that in, and she has to be fed so it was all very different, but I had a lot of support,” she said.
Dancing since she was four, the traditional Scottish style of dance requires athleticism and technique. Lesperance says watching new mothers competing in the Olympics inspired her to set her own record.
“There haven’t been many that have competed in the world champion level so it was uncharted territory, and I was going into it not knowing if it was possible and seeing where it led me,” said Lesperance.
Lesperance has one piece of advice for those learning the art of highland dance.
“If you can stick with it and you have that work ethic, you can go very far and have a lot of great opportunities with it,” she said.
For now, Lesperance is unsure what’s next. But all she knows is that she will continue performing and teaching the dance she loves.
