Woman becomes one of world's best twerkers

A woman who made waves in a twerking competition said she is now on a mission to teach the dance to more people.

Mira Grape, 24, originally from Ukraine, came third in the UK event to select an entrant for the International Twerk Championships.

The dancer and instructor said she first started twerking in 2018 and fell in love with the dance form.

Ms Grape has been living in Norwich since summer last year and said dance had given her "power and inspiration" to make big decisions in her life such as moving countries.

Ms Grape said she felt inspired by her involvement in the London event and since competing, she has decided to start teaching her own twerking dance classes.

"It was a very unifying experience, this experience also gives you a lot of energy and I came back to Norwich very full of this energy.

"I feel [there is] potential in Norwich to do something like this... to create community and to join people this way."

She said the competition was an "absolutely unique environment", adding "we are all united with the love to dance."

Ms Grape, who works full-time in sales, now hopes to become a professional dancer.

Twerking is believed to have originated from West Africa but was catapulted into the public consciousness after Miley Cyrus' 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance.

Ms Grape said she hopes to break the stereotype that twerking is just a provocative dance move synonymous with pop videos.

"Twerking is very body positive and only technique matters, so when you know the technique and how to do the movement right, then the size doesn't matter," she said.

"There are a lot of stereotypes when it comes to twerking but male or female, it doesn't matter - my favourite twerking teacher is from Spain and he is a man".

After going to her first dance class seven years ago, Ms Grape said she had fallen in love with the dance.

She added: "I really enjoyed [it] and I felt a big difference in my body and I felt more strong and confident."

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