Meet the siblings who have taken the dancefloor by storm - winning professional championships at the age of just eight and 11. <br /><br />Petya Mott, 11, has been dancing since the age of two and his sister, Anya, eight, followed in his footsteps aged three - after watching her brother busting moves.<br /><br />Petya won his first solo competition in January 2020 and started competing with his sister in June 2020.<br /><br />The duo won their first competition together in December 2020 and are the current UK Closed champions - after winning in Bournemouth on July 30, 2023.<br /><br />Petya and Anya are fans of Strictly Come Dancing and would love to compete on the show one day.<br /><br />The siblings' mum, Vera Mott, 38, a language teacher, from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: “They started dancing as a couple from the first day of lockdown in March 2020.<br /><br />“Anya is only eight but she is dancing in the same category with 11 year olds. <br /><br />"There are a lot of movements that require her to work twice as hard.<br /><br />“We are really proud of them and me and my husband, Steve, 47, would do anything to support them."<br /><br />Petya said: “We want to become world champions and hopefully, ballroom dance will be an Olympic sport so that we can compete in the Olympics.<br /><br />“We would love to go and see Strictly Come Dancing and maybe even be on the show.”<br /><br />Petya started ballroom lessons at aged two, while the family were still living in Kazan, Russia.<br /><br />They moved over to Bournemouth, Dorset, in May 2015 and Petya continued his love of dancing and started competing in June 2016. <br /><br />Anya soon started to pick up her brother's hobby.<br /><br />She said: “I was crawling on the dancefloor while my brother was dancing, so practically I have been dancing my whole life."<br /><br />The pair began dancing together during the lockdown in March 2020 and dance every morning for an hour with their teachers - Warren and Kristi Boyce.<br /><br />The siblings also squeeze in three hours of dance lessons after their school day.<br /><br />They won their first championships together in the Croatia International Open Online Dance Championship in December 2020.<br /><br />Petya said: “We were really proud of ourselves and our results.”<br /><br />Vera said: “I had tears in my eyes when I saw the result.<br /><br />“It came with many obstacles because it was an online competition. <br /><br />"There were delays in the sound and the video. <br /><br />“I wanted them to win, but I did not expect them to win. <br /><br />"They were trained by having Zoom classes, so I was really proud of them.”<br /><br />Petya has been able to keep up with his studies alongside the intense dance training and got 100 per cent on his SATs math test. <br /><br />Vera said: “Because Petya is doing excellent in both academics and sports, the school is really supportive of his ballroom dancing.”<br /><br />The siblings have also raised £620 for the charity 'I Can Dance UK' - which helps disabled children to dance.<br /><br />Petya said: “We run every day in August 2020, a total of 100km. We raised £620 for the charity ‘I Can Dance UK’.
