Dancer, 10, on search for perfect ballroom partner

A 10‑year‑old ballroom dancer from North Yorkshire is looking for a dance partner to help her grace the floors of the national finals after years of training.

Martha, from Danby, has been dancing since she was two and said she hoped to enter all the categories for her age group - but without a partner she can only take part in half of them.

Martha explained she dreamed of competing at the finals in Blackpool later this year - a milestone she admitted she sometimes even thought about "during maths lessons".

She said she was looking for a boy aged between 10 and 11 who already had ballroom experience and understood the discipline required.

"Someone who knows what they're doing - not someone turning up in rugby boots and a scrum cap," she smiled.

Martha said she had spent the past four years focusing on ballroom and Latin dancing and trained four times a week.

She said her favourite dances were the "samba, the cha-cha and the pasodoble".

Martha's coach, Chris Colebrooke, said she had the discipline and talent to progress, adding that her ambition had grown after boosting her competition experience this year.

Colebrooke, based in Whitby, described her as a "bright, committed student" who picked up choreography quickly and had shown "exceptional" dedication.

"She's that dream student all teachers want to have," he said.

"I've seen a real spark come alive within her," he said.

"She's been dancing for a long time, but the more competitions she's done the more her world has opened up.

"This is where she wants to be."

However, she required a dance partner to compete in all the categories in Blackpool, he explained, and can currently only enter solo events.

Colebrooke said finding the right partner was not as simple as pairing her with another child who enjoyed dancing.

"It's not as easy as plucking someone from another class," he said.

"They're all different abilities, Martha is very well trained and needs someone at her level or better."

"She'll work twice as hard to match them," he added.

The coach appealed for anyone who fitted the criteria, or knew someone who might, to get in touch.

Martha said she would "absolutely love" to find someone who shared her passion for ballroom and her ambition to compete at a national level.

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