Who lets a ten-year-old dress like this? Dione's mum has no qualms - and spends thousands on her daughter’s dance outfits.

By HELEN WEATHERS

'It's only a costume': Kim says she has no qualms about her daughter's revealing outfits because it's part of the dance competition and not what she would wear in every day life

Blue eyes heavily made up with glitter shadow and fringed with false eye-lashes stare confidently into the camera. The lips are ultra glossy and her skin has the unnaturally golden-brown hue of fake tan.

Big hair, teased and backcombed into an elaborate ‘do’ is set off by a sparkly head-dress, while her £900 costume in a lurid eye-catching neon colour is studded with hundreds of Swarovski crystals which glitter and catch the light.


Too much? Kim applies her daughter's make-up which Dione says she loves being able to wear

The pose and appearance is that of a young adult, dolled up like a Las Vegas showgirl, but the girl in the picture is just ten years old. And Dione Blackwell has been dressing like this since she was six.

These are the pictures Dione’s parents, Kim Priestman, 33, and Lee Blackwell, also 33, have on the walls of their home in Hull, instead of the kind of snaps most parents have on display of their kids; casually dressed, unadorned, the way nature intended.


Natural beauty: Dione is pretty without make-up but mother Kim insists she needs it to stand out to the dancing judges

But then Dione is a disco freestyle dance champion and these days being a talented dancer isn’t enough on its own. It seems you have to gild the lily — to an extreme degree — to have any chance of beating the competition.

When I meet her, Dione is free of make-up and wearing ordinary clothes. She is a beautiful, delightful, unspoilt child with long naturally-blonde hair and a sweet nature. But it’s the images on the wall of her painted and preened like an American beauty pageant contestant that are utterly mesmerising. And not for the right reasons.


Talented: Dione has won a number of dance competitions but did she need all that adornment to do it?

Yet perhaps the most disturbing aspect of all is that her mother, Kim, a dinner lady, thinks they are simply lovely. She looks completely baffled when I suggest to her that the heavy make-up and skimpy carnival costumes with cutaway sections might be rather inappropriate for such a young child.

‘Everyone knows the more glam the girls look, the better they will do. Plain girls don’t get noticed by the judges,’ says Kim, who spends every penny of her £6,000-a-year pay on Dione’s hobby and elaborate custom-made outfits.


Supportive: But father Lee admits he wishes the competitions were more about the dancing than the costumes

source: dailymail

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