A YOUNG Keighley dancer’s competition win in Blackpool took her the Peak of success.

Gabby Hands danced against 280 girls the same age at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens in the first round of the American Association of Dancing’s annual Scholarship contest.

She won a place in the semi-finals at Buxton Opera House, in competition whose top prize was to have her dance lessons paid for the next 12 months.

Gabby went to Blackpool last June with several fellow pupils of the Keighley-based Irene Ogden School of Dancing, which is affiliated to the American Association of Dancing.

School principal Katherine Hickman said: “Each year girls from our school go to the Winter Gardens at Blackpool for the first round of the competition.

“They learn a tap and ballet routine, which they have to perform in front of a panel of examiners. The successful entrants are then invited back to re dance their routines at the Opera House Buxton.”

Gabby is now rehearsing along with other girls from the Irene Ogden school for the Keighley Amateurs pantomime Dick Whittington And His Cat.