When 22 year-old Georgina Kee receives her degree at the Millennium Forum today it will not be the first time that the award-winning dancer has taken centre-stage.

As a member of the Sollus School of Highland Dancing, based in her native Bready, Georgina has performed at the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh and choreographed the first highland dancing team from Ireland to take part in the festival in 2011.

At 16, Georgina became one of the first people in Ireland to qualify as a Highland Dance tutor and she has continued to teach classes in everything from Highland to Zumba while studying for her degree in Dance at the University’s Magee campus over the past three years.

A passionate advocate of all genres of dance, Georgina’s reputation as an Ulster and European choreography champion led to her selection as choreographer for a spectacular performance to mark the arrival of the Olympic torch in Derry last month.

“I was honoured to be asked to take part in the Olympic torch celebrations,” said Georgina.

“Over 60 dancers participated in the event which took place in St Columb’s Park in the City. I wanted to showcase a fusion of Irish, Highland, Modern and Hip Hop styles, and the performance received a tremendous reception from the crowd. The show was even better than expected and sold over 1200 tickets, which was amazing.”

Georgina is now busier than ever and plans to expand her teaching following graduation as well as taking part in a number of other projects.

She said: “This is an exciting time for dance in the run up to UK City of Culture 2013 and I hope to be involved with various initiatives such as putting together a bid to host a Tattoo here in Derry. After the Olympic torch celebrations I’ve really caught the bug for performing and am looking forward to the year ahead.”