By Rachel Smart, The Inverness Courier

A two-night dancing extravaganza raised more than £50,000 for a Highland mental health charity.

Mikeysline’s Glitterball saw 18 dancers take centre stage at Inverness’ Drumossie Hotel.

Leann Hunter and Dale MacLennan were crowned the winners last Friday night while Michelle Newell and Craig Taylor were the Saturday night winners.

Emily Stokes, chief executive of Mikeysline said “Like the judges, two of whom each night were technical judges, we were blown away by the standard of the dancing each evening and the entertainment this offered to our audience.

We are so grateful to all of the dancers for their incredible commitment and support they have provided to Mikeysline, for putting on such a show over the weekend and for helping to highlight and raise funds for our charity over these past six months”

The format was a Toe2Toe trained dancer dancing with a non-dancer.

Each contestant found a corporate sponsor and this helped pay for their costumes.  They were trained for both a Latin and ballroom dance by Tristan Hill and Jennifer Hill, who own and run Toe2Toe Dance in Inverness.  “We are unbelievably proud of every single one of our competitors”, said the trainers.  “Not only did they work so hard on perfecting their dance routines, but they raised a phenomenal amount of vital funds for Mikeysline with every penny raised going towards helping them to continue their vital work. Heartfelt thanks to our corporate sponsors and everyone who has donated to their journey along the way”

Ms Stokes added “With regards to our partnership with Toe2Toe Dance we could not be happier that Tris and Jen chose to partner with Mikeysline.  We have loved the whole process.

A couple of us at Mikeysline already attend their dance lessons and we would strongly encourage anyone who was at one of our fundraisers to either consider signing up for next year’s event or to check out what Toe2Toe Dance can offer you from beginners Latin and ballroom classes to a range of dance fitness classes.  Dancing can be so joyous and beneficial for your mental wellbeing.

From the start of our friends at Stagecoach were there with us and have given us enormous and invaluable support to run this event.

Our friends at HIS, they came on board as our entertainment sponsor, enabling us to have the wonderful Dancing with Sharks as our live band.

Each of our 18 dancers had a separate corporate sponsor.

We were supported by our judges, our photographer, Sb Photography and by the wonderful James Cook our MC on both nights.  The Drumossie Hotel was a fantastic venue with its amazing dance floor.  We are so grateful and still absolutely buzzing.”