Dance and Cheer-a-cality DCA celebrate a double win in Barcelona at international competition

The two groups, Amore Dance and Dynamite Cheer, aged 11 to 17 and based in Locks Heath and Hedge End, both came first place in their division.

Lara Hallam, head coach, 39, said: ‘We had a fantastic experience. We very much at DCA have the ethos that we are a DCA family.’

The head coach said that the girls were ‘very excited to go away all together obviously to compete in Spain and just make some memories’.

The competition was available for anyone at the dance and cheerleading school to attend and they quickly had teams secured.

Lara said: ‘We invited all of the parents to join us as well to make it a family experience as well.’

The girls competing had to change their routines at the last minute due to one of the athletes having a major injury a couple of weeks before the competition and they had ‘the mindset of dancing for the athlete that couldn't be there.’

The dance school is securing multiple wins under their belt, and they are now fundraising to send a team of 14 to Florida to compete.

In order to send the team to Florida, each athlete needs to pay £2,500 and Lara said that they are now ‘on a major fundraising campaign to go there as well.’ The coach said that they will find a way to get the team to the competition because of the girls’ hard work to get to this position.