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After finding herself without a dance partner, ten-year-old Latin prodigy Brooke Smith took it upon herself to train up her new partner – and has achieved plenty of success since.
When her previous partner moved up an age category in November 2021, Brooke, from Caerphilly, was left without a partner and unable to compete in partner competitions.
Having started dancing aged three, Brooke has competed on the circuits since the age of six and has impressed on the biggest stages, including Blackpool.
While searching for a new partner, Brooke attended a talk by Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas – who spoke about training her own dance partner.
Inspired, Brooke, who trains at Shappelles dance studio in Ystrad Mynach, decided to do the same – and began training ten-year-old Charlie Jennings, also from Caerphilly.
Charlie had never competed in a competition before, so was trained from scratch in March last year.
The pair have hit the ground running – finishing as semi-finalists in their first competition together.
Since then, they have reached the final in every competition they have competed in, with nine wins under their belts.
They even achieved a third-place finish at the British and National Ballroom and Latin Competition, which was held in Blackpool in November.
Brooke’s father, Paul Smith, told Caerphilly Observer the duo, who are training together at least three times a week, were “thriving”.
“Brooke has absolutely thrived on it. To have the braveness, audacity and cheek to train someone her own age – it’s unbelievable.
“Fair play to Charlie too, it’s a specialist sport. In seven months they’ve gone from strength to strength.”
Paul continued: “The hard work and determination from these kids is nice to see – it’s not all about computer games and YouTube.”
He described Brooke as “strong-minded” and said: “She wants to go on and become a world champion and have her own dance school.”
Paul also praised the coaching Brooke has received and said: “Shappelles are amazing and the teachers are something else.”
Richard Jennings, Charlie’s father, said: “I’m so proud of them both.
“Charlie absolutely loves it. He wants to be a British and world champion one day.
“Him and Brooke have that connection – they dance amazingly together.
“In such a short space of time they’re now beating the best in the country.”
Richard continued: “He’s so committed to it, he’s always smiling when he’s dancing.
“When he was younger he did a lot of street dancing, but Latin was always his favourite.”
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