A Kilwinning dancer has been picked for a prestigious dance training and performance programme set to tour across Scotland.

Seventeen-year-old Lauren McGowan was selected from a rigorous audition process to form the Project Y company joining 19 other young dancers from across the UK to tour from Wednesday, July 24.

The company spend four-weeks over the summer working with four different choreographers to create new dance works which are then toured to venues across Scotland.

Lauren said: “One of the reasons I wanted to join Project Y was that I wanted to meet other talented dancers who share the same passion for dance as I do and friends who have taken part in Project Y in the past couldn't recommended it enough.”

Anna Kenrick, Artistic Director of YDance said: “Project Y is a unique intensive training and performance programme which aims to develop the technical, creative, and performance skills of the young dancers taking part. It gives them a real sense of what it’s like to work in the industry as a performer – from the audition process, to working with top choreographers to creating and rehearsing a number of dance pieces, right through to touring the work on a national tour. The dancers are selected through a rigorous audition process and their talent is extraordinary. You really are seeing the future of dance in the making.”

YDance (Scottish Youth Dance) – the award-winning national dance organisation for children and young people in Scotland – established Project Y in 2006 as the only intensive contemporary dance and performance programme of its kind for 16 to 21-year olds.

The 2019 Company have spent the last three weeks working with acclaimed choreographers Tony Adigun, Christine Devaney, Rosie Kay and Thomas Small to create a diverse and exhilarating line-up of new work.

Project Y opens at Tramway (Glasgow) on Wednesday, July 24 and will tour to Macrobert Arts Centre (Stirling, July 25), The Lemon Tree (Aberdeen, July 26 ) and Eden Court (Inverness, 27 July).

For more information visit ydance.org.