Newport dancers won dozens of trophies after their disco routines impressed judges.

Pill-based Marie Lao School of Dance took nine dancers to the West Coast of England Freedance Championships for the first time and came home with 47 trophies.

The dancers performed freestyle disco routines and competed against around 1,500 other dancers from all over Britain.

Saffron Morris, 14, and Nicole Reid, 11, both won hat-tricks of trophies.

Nicole Lao, Olivia Williams, Rhea Davies, Taylor Simpson, Abbi Wisome (CORR), Kelsey Enos (CORR) and Ellie Torjeson (CORR) also put in trophy-winning performances.

Ella Phillips, aged two, qualified to dance in the final for her age-group but fell asleep before the competition commenced.

Marie Lao was forced to give up dancing after injury halted her career and has set up the dance school to pass her skills on to others.

She teaches more than 60 children, from the age of two up to 19, at classes in Pill and Maesglas.

Miss Lao, who choreographed the winning routines, said she was proud of her pupils.

“I hoped they would get one trophy each because they’d worked so hard, but because it was our first year at the competition I didn’t know what the expect."

The pupils now turn their concentration to upcoming exams, their end of year show and January’s qualifiers for the World Dance Championships.