Scottish arts diary: Why Edinburgh's new concert hall, the Dunard Centre, is at a critical crossroads

As we exclusively revealed yesterday, board members of Impact Scotland, the charity behind the Dunard Centre, have held a crisis meeting to discuss the progression of a contract with Balfour Beatty, which could see work finally start on the long-anticipated project.

Due to be built on the recently cleared site behind the historic RBS branch building on St Andrew Square, costs of the concert hall are understood to have spiralled, leaving fundraisers, who have secured an impressive £105 million through a mix of public, private and philanthropic donations, scrambling to keep up.

The problem has arisen despite a $1m [£747,000] donation from the Carnegie Corporation of New York just three months ago.

The Scottish Government is believed to have been asked to step in, although, having already donated £10m through the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, no new funds are as yet thought to be forthcoming.

The project has done an impressive job in raising the funds necessary for what will be Edinburgh's first new, purpose-built concert hall in 100 years. I just hope they can stretch a little further to get it over the line.

Sport or art?

Is it sport, is it art? For the purpose of this piece, I'm going to call it art, although I would physically fight anyone else who dared to suggest that.

I am, of course, talking about ice dancing. Last weekend, because the sports desk humour me, I was in Sheffield for the Bolero Cup, a new ice dance event launched to mark the careers of Winter Olympic gold medallists Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

Ice dancers Lewis Gibson, from Prestwick, and his partner Lilah Fear were debuting their new programmes for this Winter Olympics season - including a Scottish-themed free dance to a medley of music including The Proclaimers song I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), Loch Lomond and Auld Lang Syne. The performance - complete with tartan-bedecked costumes - is a crowd pleaser, with impressive Highland dancing moves translated onto the ice. Have a think about how that works.

For those of you who don't follow ice dance, these two need your attention.

Torvill herself - when I accosted her in the ladies' loos at Ice Sheffield, which is a whole separate story - told me she believes they are on track for a medal at this season's Winter Olympics. That achievement would be the first figure skating Olympic medal for Team GB in more than 30 years, since Torvill and Dean themselves were controversially awarded bronze in Lillehammer during their comeback of 1994, if it came to pass.

Gibson and Fear scooped bronze at the World Figure Skating Championships last year and have two European silver medals under their belt, as well as seven national championship wins.

Also, the international ice dance scene is fraught with drama and more twists than an Ian Rankin novel - including a controversial new pairing for France that could shake up the field.

Art or sport, it doesn't really matter. Just make sure you follow our Scottish pair this season.