Shropshire sixth-former Laura's next step will be to beat the world's best dancers
By day, Laura Ellis is a smartly dressed sixth-former at one of Shropshire's leading schools. She is also a champion dancer, whose dazzling routines have won a string of international honours.
The 18-year-old won a haul of trophies at the European freestyle dance championships in Weston-super-Mare
Now she and dance partner, 15-year-old Matthew Miller, will be taking on the best in the world at Blackpool's Winter Gardens this month.
The competition involves routines which include freestyle, ballet, tap, modern, lyrical, slow dance, street dance and rock and roll.
Laura loves the challenge, but must balance her dancing with her studies at Moreton Hall Girls' School at Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry, where she is battling through A levels in biology, geography and psychology.
She said: "I was 10 when I started dancing and have loved it ever since. My mum used to do line dancing and she was the one who got me interested initially."
It was mum Heather who took Laura along to the hugely successful Border Counties School of Dance, at St Martins, which has more than 100 members. There she was introduced to dance instructor Liz Machin and her daughter Jenna, who was to become Laura's coach and mentor.
The first real hint that Laura's talent was special was when she won a national competition called Dragor Dream Dancer, sponsored by author Julia Susuki, in 2012, winning a holiday to Tenerife. A third place finish at the Slowdancer of the Year competition, in Ireland, followed. She also won third place in Slowdance at the International Dance Star event in Norway and then, a major breakthrough, third at the World Freestyle Dance Championships.
Last year she was the Midlands area nominee for the prestigious ADEP dance award in the Under 18s section.
* Read Laura's full story in the June issue of Shropshire Magazine.
