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This is a story of true grit and grace, of a Scots/Kiwi girl who achieved greatness in Highland Dancing against all odds. Her name was Sandra Wright of Tuakau, now Sandra Esplin of Glamis, Scotland, who was placed first overall in the adult World Highland Dancing Championships at the Cowal Highland Gathering in 1966. Sandra is a professional teacher, continuing to achieve in her art. Yet she claims to have never worked. As a wise person once said: It’s not work if you love it. Nearing the 60th anniversary of her achievement, when she first danced and qualified at Cowal in 1964, we salute our past champion, Sandra Esplin, nee Wright. - Scotdance NZ writer Mary-Jo Tohill had a chat to Sandra.  Sandra Esplin nee Wright Sandra Wright was born in Wishaw, Lanarkshire in Scotland. Her parents immigrated to New Zealand when she was a 5-year-old. “I was the youngest passenger on board the SS Atlantis, dressed in my kilt, although I hadn’t danced at that age.” Her photo made the front page in the newspapers. Growing up in NZ, she lived in Meadowbank in Auckland, Thames and Tararu in the Coromandel, and Pokeno and Tuakau south of Auckland. Her main teacher from age 10 to 17 was Johanna Lees nee Fraser, who lived in Pokeno. They are still in touch. She remembers competing against some excellent female dancers but particularly remembers male rivals such as Brian North, Peter Ryan and Terence Sheridan.  • Sandra with all her winnings taken a few months before she left New Zealand to return to Scotland. Sandra had two big items in her bucket list. “I wanted to win at Cowal and hopefully be employed as a dancer. “I only competed four times in Scotland due to being a dancer in theatre shows, but I competed at Cowal in 1964 and qualified for the finals. “March 1965, I won the United Kingdom Alliance (UKA) championship gaining first place in the fling, swords and Seann Triubhas and placed second in the Reel O’Tulloch. I competed at Cowal and was third overall in the adults.” She was 19 at the time. “In 1966, I only competed at Cowal, and won the World Adult Championship.”  • Holding her cup, taken in NZ before the cup was returned to Scotland. She makes it sound like a logical progression and very cut and dried. But it was not. From May 1964 in the lead up to her Cowal debut, until the week before her world championship win in 1966, she was a professional dancer in shows throughout Scotland. Sandra lived the life of a performer - in digs in the town or city where the theatre was based, mainly Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Ayr. To have made the finals in Cowal (1964) without any competition was testimony to her strong performance background; to have finished third overall the second time at Cowal (1965) with only one competition behind her that year (the UKA champs) is remarkable; to have won the worlds (1966) at her only her fourth competition in Scotland is a staggering achievement. Quietly determined is one way to describe Sandra. “I had done lots of competitions in NZ which definitely helped and given me confidence, but I always had ‘tummy butterflies’, and I think most people think of me as very quiet and shy person even today! My worst nightmare is being asked to speak in public. “Cowal August 1965 (which I’d like to add was rather difficult to get to!), I was not allowed to be absent from the Friday evening show, so with my-husband-to-be Joss Esplin, after the show, we ran from the theatre to the bus station in Dundee, travelled to Perth railway station where I got a little sleep and Joss kept his eye on people experiencing homelessness that night, arrived in Glasgow where my former landlady gave us breakfast. Then another train, bus, boat, and bus to Cowal. It was a cold wet day and I was pretty tired by the time I arrived at Cowal. “I don't remember any nerves as I was so tired, wet and cold, and I didn't expect to be in the finals and never dreamt I'd be placed third overall! “When we arrived back at my future in-laws in Glamis, they said I quote, “we will take you next year”, and they did.” She had made a promise to herself to win, and another to her parents to return to New Zealand for her 21st birthday. “1966, again, I don't really remember bad nerves as I didn’t expect to be in the finals. I was then more concerned that my left Achilles tendon, which was well strapped up, would break before I'd danced the three dances in the finals. I had pulled it as I practiced the required dances outside on concert slabs which weren’t totally level at my future in-laws house at Glamis in the last few days leading up to Cowal in 1966. My right foot was strapped up, plus I had done no competitions since Cowal the previous year.” Despite all of that, she won. Sandra came home to New Zealand in October 1966 and can remember very clearly how her achievement was acknowledged in New Zealand.  • Sandra in a wheel chair the day she arrived back in NZ after winning the World Championship for Highland dancing at Cowal in August 1966 “When our ship docked in Auckland there were dancers organised with swords
making an archway, which I was to be walking through. Then we were all to do the Highland Fling. But two weeks before reaching New Zealand, I was doing the Sword Dance on the ship while crossing the Indian Ocean, and went over on my ankle and broke a bone in my left foot in the last bar of the dance, so I left the ship in a wheel chair. “It was a disappointment for me, the dancers, teachers and piper Syd Scott. Syd was the father of my very good friend Heather Scott. A photo of me in the wheel chair with Joss, my future husband, and Syd Scott playing the pipes was on the front page of the New Zealand Herald. In Scotland, Sandra found the attitude to New Zealand dancer nae bother at all. However, they did find her dancing style quite a bit different. “The movements, the rhythm, the steps were all vastly different and I realised if I did not dance the set steps I would be disqualified. “I had only two or three lessons from a Dundee teacher in 1965, but I got the SOBHD book and learnt all the differences in the set steps, positions and timing by myself. There was lots I had to change; the placing of the foot in shedding, arm positions, timing, plus all the set steps in every dance.” Sandra has been a UKA member since 1965. After her stint back in New Zealand, she went back to Scotland in 1970 with husband Joss. “Joss and I were a ‘double act’ in many theatres shows in Scotland, Canada, a few in the USA and three series on Television. The programme was called Alec Finlay & the Royal Clansmen. I was the only female. The others were Alec Finlay, a prodigy of *Sir Harry Lauder, Will Starr, Dennis Clancy, Arthur Spink, Ronnie Coburn, my husband Joss Esplin and me.” * Sir Henry Lauder 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950) was a Scottish singer and comedian popular in both music hall and vaudeville theatre traditions; he achieved international success. “Sadly, Joss is no longer with me, passing on in 2018. Joss and I have two sons. Scott the elder, is an architect in Forfar, but he did dance on Television and in many Scottish shows, and Kyle has been a professional entertainer on cruise ships since he was 21, singing and playing piano as a headline entertainer. “I was a professional dancer in theatres and hotels from 1964-2009. “I started teaching in 1977 and I’m still teaching. I’ve never worked!”
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