The founder of a Drumchapel dance school who returned from a recent competition with an amazing 80-trophy haul admits it all started when she went out for shopping and came home with a dance studio.

Amy McIntyre started Dance Revolution in April 2015 after the school she and her sisters attended closed unexpectedly.

Now, eight years later, Amy has 106 dancers - some as young as 16 months old – in her dance academy and took home an astonishing 80 medals after a three-day dance competition in Blackpool.

Speaking to the Post, Amy explained the success is well beyond anything she could have hoped for when her former school closed its doors.

She said: “There were only about 15 kids in that school and everyone was saying to me, ‘can you run some classes?’ and ‘why don’t start a dance school?’

“And I was like, ‘no. I’m not interested. I’ll do a few classes for you just until you find new dance schools to train at.’

“I then hired a church hall for a month. Thinking that will give these kids a place to train. Eight years later and I am still doing it.”

Amy’s school focuses on freestyle disco, hip hop and lyrical dance and the success in the seaside resort was shared by just 28 dancers – including a three-year-old and a five-year-old winning Standout Champion awards.

The great results are the accumulation of the dedication Amy has shown. And three years after setting up in the church hall, she described how she one day went out for messages only to come back having signed a lease on a new studio.

“In 2018, I went up to a dance shop, and while I was going to the dance shop, popped into the woman who was the landlord, and signed a lease instead of buying my shopping,” Amy said.

“I asked the girl in that shop, ‘how do you get these units?’, went in had a look and signed the lease that day.”

It was another milestone that hadn’t been in the script for the Dance Revolution founder who now trains dancers out of a unit at Ladyloan Place alongside two of her fellow coaches.

Nicole Shiels, whose daughter, also named Eden, 3, has been at Dance Revolution for a year and goes up to four times a week. The mum told the Post the dancing has helped young Eden come out of her shell and said the school has changed her life.

Nicole said: “I really wanted something for my daughter to focus on and be a little bit of a distraction.

"At the time I was suffering quite badly from anxiety and meeting new people and getting out and about and somebody told me about Amy’s dancing.

“Just getting out the house, meeting new people, helped me so much. It’s like a family.

“Getting my daughter into competitions, being away with a big group, with people who are all supporting each other and supporting the kids, it’s just been absolutely amazing.

“As for my daughter, her confidence has just come out of nowhere, it’s fantastic to see. She has made such amazing friends."

Nicole added: “It isn’t just a dance school, everybody is like a family.”

Teacher Amy insists the success isn’t just down to her, but her team and parents working together to form a family feel about the place.

She finished: “When I was a kid at dance school, I struggled with confidence. I always hid up the back, didn’t really want to be featured and that.

“But when I opened my school, I was like, I don’t want kids to be like me, I want kids to be confident, I want kids to have a safe space.

“I think the fact I have managed to create that family feel about the place is definitely the best thing about it.

“Because we are just like a big family, it’s like me and my 106 wee sisters.”