A DANCE festival has put itself on the regional map by becoming the only North-East event to gain qualifier status for a prestigious national festival.

Darlington Festival for Performing Arts has successfully become an All-England nominated dance festival after applying for status this summer.

This means the competition has become a first round qualifier for the All England Dance Competition, a national competition of theatre dance for amateurs. It is the only event in the region to achieve this status.

To gain entry to the All-England, dancers at Darlington will have to gain a qualifying mark.

Prizes in the national festival include cash awards and scholarships for renowned dance colleges, including Laines Theatre Arts and Arts Ed.

Organisers of the Darlington festival hope this will mean dance schools and individuals from all across the North-East, Cumbria and Scotland will come to the town.

The Darlington festival was awarded status earlier this month following an All-England assessment of the venue, standard of dance entries and facilities.

The festival, which was added to the Darlington Festival for Performing Arts in 1935, updated its programme this year to include hip-hop and other contemporary dance styles as well as the traditional ballet, freestyle, song and dance, tap, modern, and character.

It also has group classes for classical, cabaret, and rock and roll.

Paula McIntyre, dance festival co-ordinator, said: “Darlington Dance Festival is the only nominated festival in the North East and we are very proud to receive this nomination.

"This is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved in making our dance competition a friendly and successful event. The dance teachers who took part have praised highly our standard of competition and overall organisation.

“We are happy to invite them to our next competition in March 2010 where their pupils can now progress on the route to the All-England finals.

"In the past dancers and dance schools in our area have had to compete in festivals in the North West as their nearest All-England nominated venue. We are happy that we can now cater locally for the North-East dancers."

Any dancers or schools interested in taking part should contact Paula McIntyre at dpmcintyre@aol.com or by calling 07973-814088.