Gold! Children from Hartlepool are celebrating after taking top spot at the Dance World Cup
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A squad of 45 competitors from the town travelled south to Telford for the event which is expected to last almost two weeks.
They all come from the Val Armstrong School of Performing Arts, which is based in Hartlepool and has been selected to represent England at the Dance World Cup.
Val’s daughter Hollie Sorelle, who is one of the teachers at the school, said: “Every single member of our team, all 45 of them, will be coming back with at least one gold medal which is amazing.
"We now have a world champion soloist which is Katie Allan, She won gold with a show dance solo.
"We have numerous golds, silvers and bronzes. Every group we brought has now got a medal.”
But the school’s success goes even further than that. Every one of its dancers has placed in the top six of each category they have entered and Hollie added: “We are only half way through so we are absolutely over the moon with the result.”
Val said the competition got off to the perfect start with ‘an exceptional first day with lots of medals’.
Competitors who are aged from six to 20 are doing Hartlepool proud at the prestigious event.
Val, who also has studious in South Shields and Middlesbrough, previously told the Hartlepool Mail: “It has been quite a challenging time for all of the dance schools and dance teachers.
"Most of the training over the last 18 months has been done online so it has been a huge achievement for us to pull this together. We have been training solidly for the past couple of weeks and everyone is really rallying round.”
She added: “The support from the faculty, the parents and the children has been incredible so I am immensely proud of everyone.
