I went to two events yesterday that epitomise Haringey’s finest: the Haringey Dance Showcase at the Asian Centre and then Young Haringey Heroes awards at the Bernie Grant Centre.

The Dance Showcase was a delight. It was a collaboration across three of our community centres –  the Asian Centre (which hosted), the Irish Centre and the Afro-Caribbean Centre. The performance started with a chair dance with very beautifully clad older ladies in amazing saris who told the story through their hands and movements sitting in chairs and went all the way through to Irish dancing with the most wonderful young girls (pictured) giving us a real Irish flavour. So from Bollywood to belly and from street to Turkish – Haringey’s diversity was danced to us.

In a borough as diverse and multi-cultural as Haringey with 225,000 residents , nearly 200 different languages and over half the population here from a culturally diverse background – this was Haringey at its best.

I went straight onto the Bernie Grant Centre for the Young Haringey Heroes Awards 2010. This was the third year of these awards where we celebrate the achievements of children and young people from Haringey. As always in Haringey – there was an array of performances as well as the awards themselves.

The awards I was there to present was for the Junior Outstanding Progress by a child new to the UK – winner Andre Toth – and then the award for Outstanding Progress by a young person new to the UK where there were joint winners – Andres Ladino and Mohamed Mohamed. These three had all faced the challenges that coming to a new country, new culture, new language and new everything – and had learned English and then helped others to adapt, passed exams with flying colours and generally adapted to this strange new world brilliantly.

Congratulations to all the awards winners – as ever – a very uplifting occasion.