A step back in time e to see what I missed; Britain's Got Talent hopefuls Debbie Chapman Dancers face the judges tonight as they perform live in front of Simon Cowell and Co for a place in the TV show's final on Saturday. Echo reporter Claire Rees gave up her chance of stardom with the Cardiff dance group when she threw it all in 17 years ago - so we sent her back to join them at rehearsals.

Byline: Claire Rees

IF anyone can make you look good on the dance floor, it's Debbie Chapman. But can she help me refine years of un-choreographed nightclub prancing into something that passes as real dance talent? Seventeen years after I hung up my jazz shoes I attempted to find out. I was brought up in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, a place where girls dance.

It's a birthright. You hit the age of four and your little toes are pushed into a pair of ballet or tap shoes, usually both, and for the next few years your social life is sorted. Then, as you get a bit older, you go to "jazz" - where it's soon determined who's got it and who hasn't.

You were either a Jo's girl or a Debbie's girl - you went to one of two rival Rhiwbina dance schools made up of equally ambitious young dancers who could be found filling the village after school with wide smiles and skippy walks.

And, for a very brief period in time, I was a Debbie's girl. Debbie Chapman, the former West End dancer who has been moulding girls in South Wales into poised and polished dance divas for 25 years, has mentored youngsters who went on to big things.

One of my contemporaries is now a successful backing dancer who's performed with Charlotte Church, and Debbie herself taught a young Noel Sullivan of Hear'Say fame.

And it's no surprise they've now found themselves collectively under the spotlight after auditioning for ITV show Britain's Got Talent and making it into tonight's live semi-final to face the public vote.

Everyone's got behind the talented troupe's bid to win - cars along Heol y Bont where they have been practising sport good luck posters and parties have been planned.

Former pupil Helen Davies, the wife of rugby legend Jonathan, is urging guests at hers to bring a costume and a mobile phone to vote.

And, amid the DCD buzz, I headed back to Rhiwbina.

I started dancing at "Debbie's" when I was 10, egged on by a friend who could probably have made a career out of it if she hadn't discovered boys, and I was pretty useless. Debbie, 50, prides herself on remembering everyone who turned up in shiny leggings and white jazz shoes and says I wore headbands a lot and was "not that bad".

I somehow made it on stage as a monkey in Bare Necessities when she put on Jungle Book at the Penarth Paget rooms and can still remember the move to picking a paw paw.

But I never took direction too well and, a few duff moves later, I don't remember Debbie protesting too much when I said I should probably give it up.

So this week I was sent back to that old Scout hut to find out if I'd improved and if, 17 years on, I'd have stood a chance at being selected as one of the DCD Seniors Debbie put forward for Britain's Got Talent.

It's a busy week for Debbie and the girls (and boy).

Since they impressed the judges in bright yellow knitted flapper dresses at their audition (I got to wear one for my lesson - a real upgrade from that monkey costume) they've been practising non-stop with nightly rehearsals around the girls' exam timetables.

"We haven't just got the Britain's Got Talent semi final," said mum-of-three Debbie, who regards her pupils as extended family, "we've got A-levels, GCSEs and AS levels. They know they've got to focus on their education too - and I've told them, as exciting as it is, that has to come first."

But they found time to welcome me back, and as I walked into the tiny hall with its familiar wooden smell, I was pleased to discover Debbie was still just as patient with dance dunces.

Three words, corner to corner, used to fill 10-year-old me with dread.

It was the moment in class where we had to show off how well we'd learned a new move - by travelling in it from one end of the room to the other - as the rest of the girls stood in a square around you gawping.

The amount of times I'd "corner to corner" hoping for the best with my own bizarre interpretation of a step (if anyone's seen Phoebe "jog" in Friends, they'll understand) was more frequent than when it clicked, and these days my co-ordination has, if anything, worsened.

Memories of failure flooding back, I wanted Debbie to teach me the Spring-Ball-Changea basic signature step flaunted on the primary school playground by her most accomplished protegees. Straight, strong arms are the key, Debbie said, and plenty of teeth.

My old jazz shoes substituted for some much more fashion-conscious ones with heels, and my expanded figure squeezed into a sequined costume that might make Lady GaGa blush, I was determined to give it my all and was confident I'd left behind the self-conscious gait of someone on her way to high school.

I'd mastered the SpringBall-Change, but most of these girls did that before they turned five, so it was daunting as I joined them in a pathetic attempt at mirroring their routine for the semi final in a performance that certainly would have earned me an early X from Amanda.

"Dance like a diva," said Angharad Batten, 19, of Cyncoed, who has been coming here since she was four.

"You could be the best dancer in the world but it makes no difference if you don't have the attitude."

So I did, even if it meant moving in the completely opposite direction to the rest of them.

When they break out the moves tonight to Beyonce's One Night Only from the film Dreamgirls, the DCD girls will only get a minute-and-a-half to show what they're made of.

One thing's for certain, the true diva-like glittering outfits, including a surprise re-veain the finale, will certainly turn Cowell's head.

But Debbie, who arranged the luxury bus used by Only Men Aloud to take her charges up to London last night in style, says they've already proved themselves.

"They aren't professionals, they're girls who love doing this as a hobby," she said.

"If we could win Britain's GotTalent, itwouldbeoutof this world - but no-one can take away from them what they've already achieved." Watch the real DCD dancers tonight on Britain's Got Talent on ITV One at 8.30pm. The final is tomorrow night.

CAPTION(S):

Dance teacher Debbie Chapman Britain's Got Talent sem-finalists Debbie Chapman Dancers take to the streets of Rhiwbina. Claire Rees joins the troupe