A DANCE troupe is celebrating a “brilliant” performance at the finals of a national competition.

Epic Dance Academy, in Burnham, sent 24 students to compete in the 101 Events Street Dance Championships British Finals at the K2 in Crawley.

It was the first time some of the students had ever competed in a national finals competition.

Senior students Emma Lawrence and Tayla Barclay achieved third place for their duet in the under-16 advanced category and the senior team – Tarantism – took third place for their performance in the under-16 advanced category.

Junior team TNT were joint ninth in the under-12 beginners category and junior crew Nu-Era achieved 11th place in the same category.

Dance principal Carlie Boler said: “For a group of children ranging in age from six years up to 15, some of whom have only been dancing a matter of months, to achieve positions around the top ten in the country is an amazing achievement.

“They have done brilliantly, and we couldn’t be prouder of them all.”