A Westbury pole dance teacher is celebrating winning the top award in the instructor category at the UK Professional Pole Champion-ships, after being persuaded to enter by her students.

Vicky Peacock, 29, started teaching pole dancing in 2007 after being invited to classes in Warminster, where she quickly realised the physical benefits from the activity.

She soon got her own pole and began teaching herself the harder moves at home until an opportunity came up for her to be an instructor at the Fit 2 Perform class she went to in the town.

Mrs Peacock, of Hackney Way, then decided to start teaching pole dancing full-time after having her twin boys in November 2009 and opened Spin Dance Fitness Studio in Frome.

She said: “The award is a massive achievement for me as it shows how far I’ve come in the last few years. I was encouraged to enter into the instructor category by my students, because I didn’t have the confidence at first.

“I entered a video of myself before I was picked for the grand final at the Inter-national Centre, Telford, where I was required to do a planned routine in front of six judges and 800 people.

“I wasn’t sure about pole dancing at first as there is a stigma around it, but I was surprised by the physical benefits of it as an exercise.”

Mrs Peacock, who worked in the financial sector before becoming a pole dance instructor, said she was nervous before the finals on December 2 and did not expect to win her category.

She said: “I was terrified before going out to perform. I had practised my routine a lot, but performing it in front of hundreds of people and the judges was scary.

“The audience was fantastic, though, and really spurr-ed me on.”

Mrs Peacock also teaches street dancing and qualified with the Street Dance Teacher Training Company in April 2010.

For more information, visit www.spindancefitness.co.uk or call 07807 586892.