By Kelly Eve

Published at 11:28, Wednesday, 29 July 2009

A FIELD near Carlisle isn’t the first place you’d expect to find native American Indians.

Spectacular: The Kwahadi Dancers from Texas in action

Yet 60 members of the Kwahadi Dancers transformed the Ratlingate International Scout Centre at Kirkandrews-on-Eden into a sea of colour on Saturday night.

The group – largely made up of American boy and girl scouts aged 12 to 21 – performed its 90-minute Song of the Eagle display of traditional American Indian dance.

The Kwahadi Dancers, from Amarillo in Texas, stopped off in Carlisle on Saturday night after performing in Belfast’s Grand Opera House 24 hours earlier.

The Cumbrian stopover was organised by Don McCutcheon, the district commissioner for the Scout’s Reivers district which covers Carlisle and its surrounding rural areas. The district has 19 groups and involves 700 youngsters.

Mr McCutcheon said: “I first saw the Kwahadi Dancers last year while I and some Scouts were attending the Michigan International Camp.

“Their performance was free and we provided them all with meals and accommodation at Ratlingate.

“The sheer colour, pageantry and vibrancy of their performance was spectacular.”

The tour will end in Paris. Last year the group toured Korea.

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