Straughn High School freshman Gracie Burkett’s favorite pastime has earned her a trip to London.

Burkett began dancing with The Company Performance Center when she was 6. This year, she transferred to Enterprise School of Dance, and after several months, was asked to join the competition team.

At a Fusion dance competition in Mobile, she won a two-week scholarship to attend master classes at Pineapple Studio in London as well as participate in Move It, a major dance convention in the UK, and do videos and a commercial. She’ll get to visit Buckingham Palace as well as other iconic places in London. She left March 2.

Burkett choreographed the solo she danced at the competition, for which she won the scholarship.

She described the dance as contemporary.

“Because that is the style I dance best,” she said. “I connect more to the music. That’s my strong suit.

“The chose 15 dancers out of the United States, Canada and the UK to go, based on solo and performance quality,” she said. “Some got scholarships to Hollywood, but I got London.”

Burkett dances three days a week, four to six hours a day, not including private lessons.

“Homework? I try to do it on the way to class or on the way back,” she said. “I try to stay on top of all my school work.”

Burkett said her goal is to become a professional choreographer, to travel, and start her own dance competition.

She is the daughter of Brooke and Clint Burkett.