MORE than 70 performers from a Basingstoke dance school have qualified for the national finals of a freestyle and rock-and-roll competition.

The successful dancers are from the Council Road-based Footsteps Dance School, including three – Abbie Sadler, 5, Morgan Sadler, 10, and Mitchell Ferris, 11 – who were crowned South East Champions at the qualifying event in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

The best 12 performers out of the 150-odd competing in each of the 12 categories qualified for the nationals, and the academy’s success in securing 72 qualifiers ensured it won the prize for most successful school.

Co-principal, Janine Sadler, said: “I was just amazed. I think we are going to the nationals with a really strong team this year.”

She said the parents had to take a lot of the credit.

The school, founded in 1995, has about 120 dancers, aged between five and fifty.

The national finals of the International Dance Teachers Association event are in Blackpool in November.