A DANCE school from the Three Towns had a dream – to work hard, train hard but most importantly have fun whilst doing it.

And they wanted to become good enough to compete in the biggest street dance competition in the World.

United Dance Organisation hosts the World Championships every year and there are regional qualifiers for this all over the world.

Dance Mafia competed in the UDO Scottish Championships for the first time ever back in June with no expectation but to learn and have fun. Four teams competed at different age groups. Lil G’s U8s, The Mob U10s, Maniacs U12s and Outlawz U14s.

Unbelievably all four teams and 72 local kids have qualified to represent Scotland at the World Championships which will take place this weekend in Blackpool Winter Gardens. Two of the teams are officially the UDO Scottish Champions.

Over the Summer the dancers have been training hard and the parents have been fundraising harder with a target of £10,000 set to help with the huge cost involved in getting the kids entered and travelling to Blackpool to compete in such a short time of eight weeks from qualification.

Dance Mafia and its fundraising committee would like to thank all local businesses and the community for backing their efforts to reach the fundraising target and make this dream become a reality for these talented kids and their huge success.

Owner and head coach Amyleigh Cavanagh said: It’s been amazing to see all the local people and businesses support us and help us get these fantastic local kids to such a massive platform. We really have seen such amazing community spirit and we hope we can do our wee town proud.

“We consider ourself a family and every team and dancer is in this together.

“We are DMF and we are representing Scotland at the UDO World Championships.”