Arbroath parents crowned United Dance Organisation street-dance world champions

A group of parents from Arbroath who took up street-dancing have outshone their children by becoming world champions.

The troupe of 12 mums and one dad only formed in May and beat off competition from ten other parent groups from various countries.

Three months of blood, sweat and tears saw them prepare for the United Dance Organisation (UDO) World Championships.

Inspired by their own children, they then managed to clinch the title in front of huge crowds at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

Choreographer Kimberley Walker, helped train the group, said: “It was hard. Some of them didn’t know their left from their right at times.

“They would film me and go home and stick it on their TV just to practice. Most of them didn’t have any dance experience at all, so it was hard work.”

The only dad, Bob Hope, was full of praise for Kimberley after she helped get them to the very top in a short space of time.

Bob said: “What Kimberly has achieved is nothing short of a miracle, really. She took people who have their own background, no dance experience at all, and put us in a crew that can go down there and not just go on to a stage, but try and perform properly.

“It was hard work and there was a few times we walked out like a soaking wet mess and thought ‘what have we let ourselves in for?’.”

One of Bob’s dance partners, Jackie Ramsay, said she took inspiration from the younger generation when the going got tough.

Jackie said: “Many times that I would go home and say to my daughter ‘I can’t do this’ and she would say ‘mum, you can’.

“But she would tell me ‘please don’t do it like that, that is so not the way to do it, you have to do it this way’ – so she helped me out.”

They went on to strut their stuff in front of ten judges and a huge audience – beating off parent crews from nine other countries to scoop the prestigious prize.

Their own dedicated dancing kids have been their harshest critics and their biggest supporters – but now they’ve got the boogie bug, this troupe say the hip hop won’t stop.