Tap dancer is a shoe-in (From Bournemouth Echo)

Tap dancer is a shoe-in

7:00pm Wednesday 7th October 2009 in

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A TALENTED Wimborne girl is tapping her way to the top of the dance world.

Sophie Wathen, aged 11, will be the youngest member of the team representing England in the World Tap Dance Championships in Germany in December.

The young dancer got her big break in the spring after a successful audition in London with the Tap Attack dance school – described by her teacher, Nina Thompson, as the “Royal Ballet School for tap dancing”.

Nina began teaching her young protégé when Sophie was just five-years-old and said a mixture of ability and determination has carried the St Michael’s School pupil to the national team.

“She’s so good we didn’t know what to do with her. She really needed a challenge and Tap Attack will give her that,” said Nina, a teacher at the Footlight Dance Academy.

Proud mum, Julie Wathen, who also teaches at the academy, said her daughter had made greetings cards and held cake sales to raise over half of the estimated £1,000 travel costs needed for her dream trip.

To back Sophie, visit footlight-dance.co.uk.

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