A LOCAL dance group attended the UK’s biggest group dance competition in the country at the weekend - and came home with a top three finish.

And the dancers from Dance Mafia got a huge surprise when the Blackpool Tower was turned green to wish them luck for the competition the next day.

The group have returned home from the town’s Winter Gardens where on Sunday they competed in the semi-final of ‘That’s Showbiz’, the biggest group dance competition in the UK and where the most talented dance groups from all over the UK qualified and came together to battle it out for those golden tickets to the Finals in Liverpool’s Echo Arena with a capacity crowd of 11,000.

They were treated to a special surprise on the Saturday night when, thanks to Mykey Young, it was arranged to that the Blackpool Tower would turn green for a few hours to wish them luck for the following day, a gesture that Amy-Leigh Cavangh from the group described as ‘an honour.

Dance Mafia had two teams performing on the day that had previously qualified from the Scottish heats earlier in the year in the their first ever competition. The teams, the Maniacs age 6-9years and Fleek age 10-14years battled it out alongside another 129 dance teams where only a total of 25 of them would progress to the Grand Final.

Both teams performed fantastically on the day and made every one of the 50+ crowd of travelling supporters very proud.

Maniacs placed first place in the Best Hip Hop Genre and placed third in the top five overall on the day and earned themselves a golden ticket to the Grand Final.

Coach Amyleigh said: “Both teams danced their hearts out. It was a massive achievement to be in the semi final in the first year of Dance Mafia’s existence and we will now have a team representing our dance school in a prestigious final. I’m am proud of each and every one of the kids.”

She continued: “They work so hard and their determination to succeed inspires me.”