Young dancers set to represent England at Dance World Cup

A total of 10 students from the Timestep Dance Academy, based in Portchester and Wymering, will travel to Germany later this month for the annual Dance World Cup.

Nearly 50 countries will take part in the competition, which is being held in Offenburg between June 24 and July 1.

Purbrook mum Louise Scott, whose daughter Demi, 14, has been selected to compete at the tournament for the first time, said: ‘Lots of schools auditioned for these places and it’s a great achievement just to be selected.

‘It has been an extra boost for the students. They had to wait several weeks after the auditions to find out if they were on the team.

‘They’ve put in so much hard work in training, we just hope that it all pays off.’

Thousands of youngsters from across the country applied to be part of the England team.

Auditions took place in spring last year.

This will be the fifth time the academy is represented at the global event, having previously won medals in Brighton, Portugal, Jersey and Romania.

Among the group taking part will 
be 10-year-old Louis Williamson, 
the only boy to be selected from the academy.

His mum, Miranda, said; ‘Louis has worked very hard and he’s very excited to be part of the competition.’

The academy’s principal, Sarah Williams, said it was ‘an honour’ for the young dancers to be picked for the competition.

She added: ‘The standard is extremely high just getting a place on Team England, but when the dancers go to Germany and compete against the rest of the world the standard is immense.

‘Hundreds of entries are submitted and so there is no guarantee that any of our dancers would get through.

‘So having 10 dancers through to the finals is really something to celebrate.’