Ollerton dance couple need your votes in Britain's Got Talent wildcard vote on Thursday.

Ollerton dance teachers Shannon and Peter Parker were on tenterhooks this week as they waited to see if they could reach the final of Britain's Got Talent.
Ollerton dance teachers Shannon and Peter Parker.Ollerton dance teachers Shannon and Peter Parker.
Ollerton dance teachers Shannon and Peter Parker.

The ballet dancers wowed the audience and the judges on Monday’s live semi-final when they pulled out all the stops with their interpretation to Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars.

Their performance drew a standing ovation from the audience and the thumbs up from the celebrity judges of actress Amanda Holden, singer Alesha Dixon, music mogul Simon Cowell and comedy actor David Walliams

However, they just missed out on a place in the final when the judges picked sword-swallower Alex Magala to go through ahead of them, after the acts finished second and third in the public vote.

Shannon, aged 50, said: “It was an amazing experience .

“It didn’t go our way but we are so appreciative of our votes.

“All the judges were rooting for us – Simon told us our sort of dancing wasn’t normally his cup of tea, but we had cracked it.”

Now they are hoping to secure a place in the final through a wildcard vote later in the week.

Shannon said: “We are hoping and praying for a wildcard vote.

“It was interesting the variety of acts were so different it was a hard call for the judges.

“It was competitive and everybody did so well - there are no hard feelings at all.

Peter, 46, said: “It has been fantastic I want to say a huge thank you to those who voted for us, the support has been phenomenal.

“We hope everyone from our region will be behind us to put us in again.”

Peter and Shannon have both danced professionally with the Northern Ballet and came out of retirement two years ago to teach dancing on a freelance basis.

They decided to enter Britain’s Got Talent following their success on the Sky One show, Got To Dance, in 2014.

Peter said: “We thought we would go for it – it is one of the biggest TV shows in the world and it was great to get through to the live shows.

“But when you are working on the TV there are so many pieces of the jigsaw, people pulling you from left to right – you are not on your own schedule and that can be tiring . “But if we didn’t have the passion and love for it we wouldn’t do it – we’re not that young any more but we adore it.”

The couple’s children Tristran, 10, and 19-year-old daughter Jamie were in the audience.

Shannon said: “Chasing Cars is a song that we love and it’s something that everyone can relate to with a story, a beginning and an end.”

Shannon said she first fell in love with Peter when she saw a picture of him.

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