A DIDCOT dance school will represent England at the Dance World Cup 2020 in Rome.

The Bernadine Soul School for Dance has been teaching dance for nearly 30 years, but this is the school’s first international competition.

The school teaches ballet, tap and jazz and they will be competing with an acrobatic dance routine which involves flips, contortion and gymnastic elements.

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Teachers sent off a video entry and now they will be competing against 62 other countries in Rome in June.

The school is run by Natalie Soul, vice principle, and her mother and principle Bernadine Soul.

Vice principle Miss Soul said: "It is absolutely amazing.

"We’ve never submitted for anything like this before and we didn’t tell the kids when we sent off the video, but when we told the kids they were over the moon."

The youngest child competing is currently seven years old and the oldest is 16, with 15 girls and one boy.

Miss Soul said: "We’re going to step up the routine level: it will be a lot more practice with harder skills.

"We fling a lot of the kids into the air as well, so there will be a lot harder work going into it."

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She continued: “We’ve done local competitions before and most of the time we’ve placed in the top three, but this is our first international competition and the fact that we are coming from a small town really is great.”

Before the dance school can compete in Rome, they will need to raise money for flights, accommodation and kit.

They have set up a crowd funding page and are willing to perform for any events for fundraising and are offering sponsorship for the team England kit.

See justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kim-belton