A group of hardworking girls from a dance academy with centres across NI have qualified for the Dance World Cup in Portugal.
Doogan Dance Academy, ran by Gillian Doogan and her daughter Courtney, with a main studio in Antrim, have told of their pride as 35 dancers are set to compete in Braga this July.
The dancers, aged 6 to 21, will be part of team Northern Ireland and are set to showcase their talent up against 61 other countries.
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Gillian told Be: "We done the auditions, we had to video them and send them to London in December and then we found out [on] the 20th of January.
"We have 35 kids going out. The 35 kids who auditioned got all through. Some are in groups, but others are going out for solos, duets, trios - and different genres.
"We have tap, ballet, we have lyrical, we have contemporary, we have jazz."
Gillian added how she is "massively" proud of her dancers.
She said: "There has been a lot of hard work put into it and they have spent a lot of time in the studio. They have done amazing, they really have and they deserve to come home with something hopefully.
"It has been a lot of hard work for these kids. Some of them are young, really young, and they have been in that studio every Sunday from September."
The girls will start to head out on June 28, with the competition running to July 10.
The dance academy owner added: "It will be such an experience for them...
"It might never happen again.
"It's living and breathing in the dance studio seven days a week for these kids.
"Their competition season starts within Northern Ireland next week so it's full on for them for the next five months.
"The kids are amazing. When we explained it to them, we said if we are going to do it, we are going to do it with everything we've got or don't to it all - and to be fair, they have been there through thick and thin."
Gillian added how she started Doogan Dance Academy 22 years ago.
She said: "We are based all over. We teach in Belfast, Crumlin, Lisburn, Carrickfergus, Ballyclare, we teach everywhere, with our main studio in Antrim and the kids would come together there practising for exams and different things.
"I started in Crumlin in the community centre 22 years ago with 15 kids. [There are] hundreds upon hundreds [now]."
"It's just built up and it's probably one of the biggest cross-community [dance] schools across the province.
"Because we teach all over, the kids all come together. That part of it I think is the best thing ever," the proud dance teacher added.
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