A dance troupe from Knaresborough has put their town on the map, after competing in the Dance World Cup.
Freedom Performing Arts sent 22 girls to the event in Prague and placed sixth in the commercial dance category.
Up against some of the โbiggest dance schools in the countryโ, the performers felt โterrified but excitedโ to go on stage.
Their dance teacher Amy Meikle likened the competition to โKnaresborough Town playing against Manchester Unitedโ.
Speaking to BBC Radio York, Ms Meikle said: โIโm thrilled, shocked and speechless. The girls absolutely pulled it out of the bag.
โThe teams in England โ it kind of blew my mind that we were in the same section.โ
Freedom Performing Arts made the Dance World Cup finals, after coming third in the English qualifier round.
Despite only entering to see what standard the group was at, Ms Meikle said it was โextraordinaryโ to learn they were successful.
Dance student Rosie captained the troupe and described the experience as โabsolutely insaneโ.
โWhen we found out we got sixth, we went crazy, we were screaming, shouting, waving our flags on stage,โ she said.
โIโm team captain so I gave a speech to everyone backstage.
โI was trying to hype everyone up, and you could see on their faces they were scared and excited, but once we stepped on that stage, we said โthis is itโ.โ
The girls had practised five days a week since Christmas, with a routine described as โa hybrid between street dance and the kind of dancing you would see behind popstarsโ.
To get to the Czech Republic, they raised ยฃ19,000 through raffles and community support.
โIt was the Knaresborough community that did it for us,โ Ms Meikle said.
โThat community is so tight. All the businesses and people that didnโt even know us just wanted Knaresborough to be on the map.โ
