Dance duo nominated for national award presented by Strictly Come Dancing star

Dancer Freja Smith, 17, together with her partner Henry Beale from Burnley, have been nominated for the national award.

Freja trains at the Maureen Smith Dance Academy in Annan, whilst Henry is a student at Sandersons Dance and Fitness at Burnley.

The couple compete all over the UK and Ireland. The annual Classiques de Danse Awards are the only national awards which celebrate all dance forms and the annual gathering this year is at Blackpool Wintergardens in August.

Freja and Henry have been nominated in the Classical Sequence junior category at the awards.

The guest presenter is Pasha Kovalev, best known for his appearances as a professional on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Freja and Henry at Scarborough in April 2022

In 2021, Freja and Henry crowned their junior (U16) career by winning the both the British Classical Sequence and British Modern Sequence Junior Championships at Blackpool.

Since then, they have continued into adult amateur competition and are the reigning British U21 classical sequence champions, having won the event at the Blackpool Festival in October 2021.

In April this year they attended their first adult Easter Festival at Scarborough and again won the U21 competition, and also the showdance event with a dance they choreographed themselves.

Freja continues a family tradition, as her mum/co-trainer Maureen Smith was a previous Classique de Danse winner, winning the Classical Sequence Professional award in 2019. 

Freja spoke about what it means for the pair, saying: "We are over the moon, me and my partner have worked so long for this and it was a shock to be nominated.

"It shows our hard work has paid off and we are getting recognition.

"We never thought it would happen due to the pandemic, dance completely shut down. However, the nomination is the icing on the cake we needed."

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