“ElanIt’s taken just five years for young Elana Campbell, age 12, to reach the level of Premier in the arena of highland dancing and, on the way, to qualify for the United States Highland Dancing Championships, where she’ll be competing in Philadelphia in just a week.The young Clinton homeschooler was second runner-up in the Northwest Regionals to earn a berth at the nationals, her first. She and her mother, Mari Campbell, will leave today for a week of festivities and, of course, intense dancing competition.It’s very technical and really athletic, Mari Campbell said. Highland dancing is actually a strenuous activity.Elana Campbell will perform four of these rigorous Highland dances in the championships: * The Highland Fling, a victory dance that victorious clansmen were said to perform on the shields of their defeated enemies. It requires precise footwork.* The Sword Dance, first performed, legend says, by Malcolm Canmore over two crossed swords after a victorious battle near Dunsinane.* Seann Truibhas, perhaps the happiest of the Highland dances, celebrating the legal wearing of the kilt.* Reel of Tulloch, performed in a figure-eight pattern.Only dancers who have reached the highest, or premier level are eligible to compete in regional and national events. Both Elana and her sister Katie, 15, are premier dancers. They are students of Karen Shelton, who teaches in Seattle and on Whidbey, with more than 70 students, 20 of them here on the island.They can be seen at many regional Highland Games, and at the dancing competitions. Elana has competed indoors in the winter in Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, B.C., and outdoors throughout Washington, Oregon and British Columbia in spring and summer, Mari Campbell said. It’s almost a year-round competition season.The trip to Philadelphia has some tension for young Elana Campbell, who replied that she is always nervous when dancing in a competition.I always hope that I’ll do well, she said. Sometimes I feel good, but I never know about the judging until the end.Her favorite dance, she says, is the sword dance. You lay the sword on the ground and dance over it. If you touch it you’re disqualified.I think she likes it because of the challenge, Elana’s mother said.The young dancer will face that challenge at the North American Championships July 14-16. And for those who can’t make it back East, she and the other Shelton Highland Dancers will be at several events here in the Northwest, even on Whidbey Island, where the Greenbank Farm will be the site of a Highland Games festival on August 12.Last year’s was quite a success, Mari Campbell said. We’ll have a dance competition again, and a drum and piping contest. Then there will be the heavy athletics — throwing the caber and the stone.Musical entertainment, Irish dancers and Scots food (bangers and scones, Mari Campbell said, but no haggis) will make the event as close as possible to a traditional Highland Games.The Shelton Highland Dancers, including the Campbell sisters, will also be at the Seattle Games the last weekend in July in Enumclaw.Elana Campbell will be back from Philadelphia by that time to report her experience.”