Joe is Lord of the Dance

Apr 3 2007 By Poppy Brady, Birmingham Mail

MOVE over Michael Flatley. A dance mad Birmingham teenager is ready to step into your shoes.

And since 15-year-old Joe Davis has been the Irish Dancing Midlands Regional champion since the age of eight, he hasn't put a foot wrong so far.

But Joe has his sights set on the world title which he will try for next month at the World Irish Dancing championships being held in Glasgow.

It will be a case of fifth time lucky as he's been pipped at the post previously, but always finished in the world's top 12.

The four-day event attracts dancers from across the globe as far as South Africa, Australia, Europe and even Russia.

A pupil at St Thomas Aquinas Catholic School, in Kings Norton, Joe devotes at least two hours every day to working on his dance routine with his coach Jean, who also happens to be his mum and set up the Davis Dance Academy four years ago which has around 30 students.

"We work well together and we hardly ever fall out," said Joe, who would like to be a professional dancer and hopefully also teach and run his own dance school.

At the moment he is busy studying for GCSEs.