Win has acrobatic Zoe dancing for joy!

Zoe Kyte, daughter of Ciaran and Sandra Kyte, of Woodvale Mews in Eglinton, who has been dancing since the age of three with the Rainbow School of Dance, has been a student of tap, modern dance, ballet and ‘acro’ or acrobatic dance for eight years, travelled to Birmingham to compete in the Associated Board of Dance in the junior scholarship classes in all four of her disciplines.

Having tripped the light fantastic in the events, she and her mum had to be fleet of foot to make their flight home last weekend, and missed hearing the results, so they were on tiptoes until they heard on Thursday last that Zoe had taken the junior crown by coming first in the whole of the UK in the ‘acro’ junior class.

“I have been working towards dance grades from the age of three, when I first joined. I am now at levels two and three, and because I did so well, I was chosen by my dance teacher, Vanessa Chapman, to compete for the school at the Championships in Brimingham on October 2.

“I won the ‘acro’ outright in the junior competition, coming first in the UK. Acro is like modern dance, but with flips and cartwheels, and it was my first year getting into the scholarships, so I am delighted. I was too young to compete last year, and was going over this year just for the experience of competing and see what it was going to be like,” the petite dancer said.

Competing against other girls aged 10 to 13 there were 37 competitors in her tap class, 29 in the ballet class, 49 in modern and 37 in the acro class, and in each of the four disciplines Zoe was recalled to solo dance for the judges.

“I did not find out until Thursday that I had won the acro competition because we had to rush to the airport to get our flight home,” said Zoe, adding that her dance teacher was “very pleased” with how she had done.