Dancers prove tutu good...

QUICK-FOOTED Teessiders have scooped a prize from a top dance championship.

Talented youngsters from the Dancewise Performing Arts School strutted their stuff at the Northern Counties Dance Teachers Association Championships.

And their fancy moves earned the group the top award from the week-long competition at the Customs House in South Shields.

Delighted dance teacher Gemma Ryan said: "I was absolutely over the moon when we won it..

"It was a real team effort and all the kids congratulated each other.

"This is the biggest competition we enter and we won the top prize so we're really pleased!" Pupils from Dancewise came up against hundreds of other youngsters from across the region at the event.

Competitions were held in tap, modern, song and dance, and ballet, with the pupils being marked individually on their performances.

The points were then tallied up at the end of the week and the Ormesby-based school were dancing for joy when they found out they had won the overall award.

Gemma added: "I am really proud of the kids and how they worked as a team and worked for the school.

" We have only been running for five or six years so this is a really big achievement for us and the biggest thing we have won so far!" Anyone is interested in joining Dancewise can log onto dancewiseperformingarts.com or call 01642 769238..

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SEVERAL STEPS AHEAD OF REST: Pupils from Dancewise Performing Arts School pictured with delighted teacher Gemma Ryan, also inset below, and their trophies - which included five solo successes for five-year-old Eve Hewett, above