As a schoolboy, Andrzej Mialkowski was embarrassed to tell classmates he loved dancing.

He pretended to go to karate lessons but the game was up after he won a dance competition and was interviewed on TV.

Instead of sneering, his friends were delighted.

He said: “They said: ‘Wow, why didn’t you tell us? You must know loads of girls’.”

Twenty years on, Mr Mialkowski, 33, owns the Step by Step dance school, which has studios in Headington and Northampton.

His classes run in sports centres all over Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

And he has carved out a name for himself through his work with Strictly Oxford, which raises money for Vale House hospice in Sandford.

He is also involved with Junior Strictly Oxfordshire, which brings together 20 teams and 300 schoolchildren in Oxford.

In the past three years his dance school has helped raise £300,000 for charity and helped him find his wife, BBC Radio Northampton presenter Julia Morgan.

He taught her to dance for a Children in Need fundraiser five years ago and they now have a two-year old daughter, Phoebe.

Mr Mialkowski caught the dancing bug when he was just 10 and went on to compete in more than 300 competitions all over Europe.

It was eight years ago that he came to England from Poland and set up his dance school.

He particularly enjoys teaching the five Latin American dances, which are cha-cha, rumba, samba, paso doble and jive.

“Every dance is different, attitude and tempo,” he explained.

“Rumba is very difficult, because you have four beats and three movements, so people find rhythm hard but samba is the hardest, technically speaking.

“But once you start to understand dance, you realise it is all psychological.

“It’s an attitude and you have to get into character.

“For the rumba, think romantic, for the paso doble, picture yourself as a matador in Spain.”

He set up his dance school before the BBC TV series Strictly Come Dancing became popular, but says it has helped business.

Dance attracts students from all ages and backgrounds.

He said: “Two weeks ago an 81-year-old lady passed her dance exam. I was so proud of her.

“And I’ve taught children as young as three or four.”

Sometimes he is on the dance floor for 12 hours non-stop, but says he is never bored.

“I have 1,000 routines in my head and it’s in my heart,” he said.