An 18-year-old woman from Sutton has been selected for the Tap Attack England Team 2017 to represent Team GB at the upcoming IDO World Tap Dance Championships in Germany.

Holly Gibson-Barnard, student at the Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts in Swindon, has wanted to be a professional dancer since she can remember. Last year she joined performance company Tap Attack.  

“There’s never been anything else,” she told Sutton Guardian. “This has always been the pathway. Unfortunately for my mum it’s really expensive.

“I’ve never found an interest in other things. The feeling I get on stage makes me want to do loads of different shows. Making the audience happy and involved is really personal. It’s that excitement of ‘Oh My God my mum will see me or this person will see me’. It’s hard to explain.”

The passionate well-spoken young dancer needs to raise £2,500 to fund the Germany trip held in November and December.

She has established a Just Giving page in order to raise funds. The link can be found here https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/holly-gibson-barnard?utm_id=1&utm_term=Zngzdmrzw

If she manages to acquire the money, Holly said it would “mean everything” to her.

She elaborated: “I know people say that a lot, you hear it on X Factor and stuff. But if you come from a background of never getting much, it means so much to go out there and represent your country. If I come home with a medal it would mean I have done something for myself.”

Earlier this year Holly, along with her boyfriend, auditioned to be a part of Team GB in the championships.

“It was actually really really scary. The audition had loads of different routines you had to learn with each style being completely different.

“In one of them they made us take our tap shoes off and made us improvise. It was completely different to a tap audition. I was thinking what the hell is going on,” she laughed.

Despite the unexpected improvisation, Holly felt the auditions went well.

In July, she and her boyfriend were together when they heard the good news.

“It was really exciting. It was immense, amazing. It was a really nice feeling. It would have been really awkward if one of us didn’t get picked. It’s nice that we will be able to go together.”

Holly added: “My mum was ecstatic. I facetimed her because I was in Swindon. She started crying and it was quite emotional. Everyone has been really supportive. They can’t really believe it but at the same time they can, it’s one of those feelings.”

The North Cheam native has two years left in college and she stressed that any support to help her represent Team GB in Germany would be greatly appreciated.

Tap Attack has claimed 18 world title at the IDO World Tap Championships and they were semi-finalists in series two of Sky1's Got to Dance.