IRISH dancing is more than a hobby for nine-year-old Olivia Steed.
She spends her spare time dancing and can often be seen practising the steps wherever she is.
The Cheltenham youngster said she was delighted to have taken top honours at the World Irish Dance Association (WIDA) British Open Championship for the under 10 age group.
The two-day competition, held at the Civic Hall Stratford-Upon-Avon, is the UK qualifying event for the WIDA 2013 European and World Championships.
Her mother Amanda said: "We are so very proud of her. When they called her up on the platform, we had lots of tears.
"She is so humble as well."
Olivia, from Swindon Village, has Irish grandparents, and first picked up Irish dancing when she followed her 12-year-old sister Charlotte to dance class four years ago.
The Swindon Village Primary School pupil has taken giant leaps since then, and next year, she will be representing Great Britain at the European Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Amanda said: "They watched dancing before and just wanted to learn. Both of them started doing it for fun, and they got to a stage where they got quite good and had to compete to get to the next level.
"They have Irish grandparents, and have seen a bit of it before and wanted to have a go.
"Olivia has worked really hard on it. She is really excited to take part in the competition in Germany next year."
Olivia practises for about four hours every week at the McCarthy-Felton Irish Dance School in Alcester, Warwickshire.
"She works really hard," Amanda said. "She dances for at least four hours at her classes and she just doesn't stop when she is at home. She practises nearly every day. She puts in lots of extra hours when competition comes round."
Olivia said she loved dancing: "It was an amazing feeling to receive the award. I like dancing because it is fun and I meet a lot of people. I have made many new friends in classes."
She added she was looking forward to going to Germany and testing her skills against dancers from other countries.
"I'm quite excited, but nervous as well."
Her sister Charlotte competes in figure dancing.
Their father Michael, who has decided to embrace dance and took up Irish dancing five months ago, said: "We are really proud of them. Olivia had some really stiff competition, and most of them were really good dancers, but she put in a strong dance that weekend. I guess dancing comes to them naturally."
