Girls dancing with delight at success (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Girls dancing with delight at success

Girls from the Swindon Academy of Dance with their medals Picture Refs: 99253-3/24A DOZEN young dancers from Swindon returned triumphant from a competition in London in which they matched their artistic and technical skills against competitors from all over the country.

The group, from Swindon Academy of Dance, included nine-year-old Sophie Bryant of Stratton, who won top honour in the final of a national dance section in the prestigious All England Dance Championships.

She performed a dance from Romania.

Sophie, who has been dancing at the school since she was four, said: "I was a bit shocked when I found out I'd won.

"I was very excited and all my family screamed."

She won a gold medal and a certificate.

Her fellow student Emily Gara, of Abbey Meads, who is also nine, was runner up in another of the competition's sections with a dance from former Yugoslavia.

Emily, who has also been dancing since she was four, said she was really pleased to have come second.

"It was quite a difficult dance to do.

"My mum and dad were really pleased with how I did and a bit shocked too.

"We went out for a meal to celebrate and it was really nice.

Ten others were runners up with a Bulgarian routine in a group section of the championships, which attracted between 300 and 400 competitors.

They were Lauren Hume, Megan Peacock, Kate Birch, Chloe Pickering, Jasmine Teague, Amber Little, Carly Thomas, Adina Nyahwa, Lucy Castle and Lucy Gallagher.

"They all did so well just to get through the semi finals. The standards are really high," said the academy's principal Sarah Watson.

"Their success in the finals was the icing on the cake."

The academy holds classes at Haydonlea, Abbey Meads, Stratton and Blunsdon.

It is also celebrating the success of ten-year-old Jessica Kirkham, Chloe Pickering and Rebecca Howes, who are both 12, 13-year-olds Lucy Gallagher and Lucy Jefferies and Emma Pickering, 15, who have all been accepted as associates of the Royal Ballet, which means they get extra lessons by experts.

"It has been a really good year," said Miss Watson. "Especially as I had a baby last year and some people were wondering whether the academy would continue.

"I stopped work on the Saturday, was taken into hospital on the Monday and was back at work three months later."

Her daughter Saffron is now 15 months old and is already showing signs of becoming a dancer.

Miss Watson added: "Unfortunately for her dad Andy, he's a self-employed builder and was hoping she'd be more interested in tractors, lorries and things."

Shirley Mathias