Dancing queen Jill Halfpenny's took her first tentative steps in a tu-tu. The Strictly Come Dancing winner has been a fleet-footed sensation since the age of nine, according to her family.

And these pictures show her earliest days on the dancefloor, at a North-East ballet school and in a production of Oliver.

Her mother Maureen, 58, revealed that though the young Jill loved to dance, she never won a single competition.

Maureen, from Gateshead, said: "Jill has always done live theatre from being quite small, and she worked up from appearing in Annie and The Sound of Music in local productions in Newcastle, to when she appeared in Byker Grove when she was 12.

"She just loves theatre and has always wanted to act since she was small.

"She used to do ballet and tap dancing, but she had never ever done ballroom dancing.

"She used to go to a local dancing school, ever since she was three years old, but then she wanted to go into acting, and she gave up the dancing when she was about 12, when she got a part in Byker Grove.

"She was never top of the class for her ballet or tap, she was only young, though.

"She never won anything at all. She just enjoyed going to the classes, she went to dancing, I suppose because it was just the done thing, but she enjoyed it.

"I think she has good movement, and she's always been good at picking things up as well. After school, she went straight to London, and the drama school she went to was more of a classical one than musical theatre.

"She says it's so hard to learn the dances for the programme, I suppose it's like anything you haven't done before. But it's not just the steps she has to learn, it's how you have to hold yourself, the head flicks and everything else as well."

Maureen and husband Derek travelled to Blackpool for the grand final on Saturday night where former EastEnders star Jill, 29, and partner Darren Bennett wowed judges with a jive dance which earned them a perfect score of 40.

Sandra Reavley, Jill's former dance teacher at the Reavley Theatre School, Gateshead, said: "The children have been so excited and have been voting for her all along.

"Jill came to me for ballet, jazz and tap classes when she was little.

"She was here for a few years before she went to stage school aged 18.

"She was always very talented but she had never done ballroom dancing before.

"I think at first she found it difficult to adjust from being a soloist, but now she has got used to it she is doing brilliantly.

"She was always very energetic and was determined to do well at anything she put her mind to.

"She was in Byker Grove and now her niece Chelsea Halfpenny comes to our Saturday fame school classes.

"Jill has done really well on the show and is now dancing ballroom as if she has been dancing it for years. We're very proud of her."