You're all fantastic. A Hartlepool dance school owner's message to her students

Jemma Mudd, the owner of JLM Dance in Hartlepool, told of her delight after her students brought back a string of titles from a weekend competition in Blackpool.

She said it was a landmark competition for the school which has grown in confidence and ability.

Her students reached 52 finals and had a series of first places which were recorded by Phil Ansell, Evan Flounders, Darryl Parkinson, Joanne Campbell and Martin Whitley.

Jemma described it as “a really big thing for the school, for these results and students as they have worked unbelievably hard.

“We have had massive successes at our annual Blackpool national competition. I am really proud to be bring so many trophies back to the North East.

“We started the competition off right away with recalls and finals, over the two days.

“I am ecstatic to announce that each student who competed received numerous recalls and 52 finals. So that’s 52 sections where we placed in the top 7 bringing 52 trophies home all by our local competitors.

As well as the firsts, there were second places for Ebony Oliver, Evie Goodman, Mick Campbell, and Caroline Ord.

Third places went to Andrew Flounders, Scott Pounder and Nikki Griffiths.

Jemma added: “It was a very tiring weekend for all students who danced recall after recall.”

She said there were up to 80 competitors in a section and added: “To get a recall was fantastic, but to be in the final and to place is a dream which a lot of students achieved that weekend.”

She said she felt the school had grown together in “confidence and ability after this weekend.”

It has been quite a year for JLM which held a hugely successful show earlier in the year, featuring students as young as two.

Students also took part in the regional Supadance league where they did really well.

And then came the chance for JLM students to compete at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool against dancers from around Europe.

Jemma said it was the largest amount of people that the dance school had ever had competing at Blackpool.

She told Dance Fever recently: “The school is growing all the time and we now have two new teachers joining the team. This will enable us to put more lessons on for absolute beginner children and adults and advanced students.”