Gargrave is waltzing away with ballroom dance success.

The village boasts no less than three reigning British champions.

The latest is 10-year-old Leoni Maltby, who has become British Open Sequence Juvenile Champion with her Geordie dance partner Georgia Wilkins, also aged 10.

Leoni’s proud mum Lisa said her daughter was absolutely delighted with her success in the competition at Blackpool, which took her a step closer to her ambition to become a professional dancer on TV’s Strictly Come Dancing.

“It was really nail-biting, but the girls came first in every single dance,” said Lisa, a hairdresser at Shine, in Skipton.

“They won it a year early as generally the winners are a year older and move up to the junior section without having to defend their title. Leoni and Georgia were head and shoulders above the rest and were thrilled to win.”

Lisa completes a 200-mile round trip at weekends to allow Leoni to practise with Georgia, who lives in Newcastle. Leoni, who attends Settle Primary School, teamed up with Georgia after she literally outgrew her former male dance partner.

“The girls have been together for a year and really stole the show in Blackpool,” said Lisa. “Now they’ve got their sights on the world championship and defending their title next year.” Gargrave brother and sister Callam and Sophie Thomson — the reigning triple British champions — are also continuing their winning ways.

The pair, who are pupils at the village’s Thomson School of Dance, run by their parents, competed in the North of Britain open and allied championships at Southport and won all the classical and modern sequence sections. This was despite Sophie slicing her big toe in the second of the four dances and having to be taken to the local accident and emergency department!

Parents Graham and Kathy — themselves former British champions — also competed in Southport, in the inventive dance competition. It was the 25th year that they had participated and they came away with another win.

From Southport, it was on to Blackpool for the British Junior Championships where the couple had several pupils competing.

Making their debut were 15-year-old James Chew, from Cracoe, and his dance partner Georgia Carr, who travels from her home in Newcastle for weekly lessons.

They were named British Junior (under-16) Champions — pupils from the dance school have held the title for four of the past five years — and British Junior Classical Sequence Champions.