Prima ballerina Darcey Bussell has one on her mantelpiece, so do Strictly stars Bruce Forsyth and Arlene Phillips.

And now a pair of Paisley dance teachers have both won a prestigious Carl Alan Award, dubbed the dance industry’s “Oscar”, for their long teaching careers.

Elma Whyte runs dance school Shuffles in Paisley’s Incle Street and has been teaching for 43 years, while Bonnie Barr, the woman behind Dancedreams Theatre School, which has a branch in the town, has notched up 40 years.

The awards are handed out to performers, teachers and choreographers in freestyle and theatre, and ballroom, latin and sequence dancing.

Former Olympic champions and stars of ITV’s Dancing on Ice, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, also collected a Carl Alan Award for their choreography.

The prizes were given out at London’s plush Lancaster Hotel. Elma, from Ralston, who is in her early 60s, said: “It’s fabulous, I’m absolutely delighted and really honoured.”

Bonnie, 54, who also teaches in Bishopton, said: “It’s the biggest award you can receive. It’s strange for two teachers in the same town to get it!”

Both teachers have helped hundreds of youngsters learn to dance.

Elma started teaching when she was 18, while Bonnie at just 16.

Both have seen some of their pupils go on to dazzling dance careers.

Elma’s former student Laura McCulloch, from Hawkhead, dances with the Royal Ballet and as reported in the Evening Times another pupil, Grant Rae from Johnston, is in the English National Ballet and will return to Glasgow next month to dance in Giselle.

Another, Emma Findlay, played the title role in the Angelina Ballerina stage show.

Elma’s latest protege is Calum McMillan, 11, from Cambuslang. She hopes he will get into the Royal Ballet School, the training ground for the country’s best dancers and the place where fictional dance hero Billy Elliot went in the film.

Bonnie, who teaches tap, modern, freestyle, jazz and Latin American, helped set Emily Crowe on the road to success, with the 11-year-old becoming a finalist on the Sky One series, Got to Dance.

Dancing runs in the family for both teachers. Elma’s daughter Adele Maasz, 38, now also teaches at her mum’s school, and had a career on the stage after starting dancing aged just two.

Elma said: “She was here in a push chair kicking her feet watching the kids.

“As soon as she could walk she wanted to do it. It was her choice.”

Adele later headed to performing school Laine Theatre Arts in London – where Victoria Beckham was in the year below – and went on to become a regular dancer on TV shows Stars in Their Eyes and Top of the Pops.

She also danced at the Brits and with Cher and Take That but returned to Paisley after getting married to Charlie, a surveyor.

Adele said of her mum’s award: “It’s well deserved. It’s good after all these years she’s been recognised. It’s her passion.”

And now the next generation of the family – Adele’s kids Clara, nine and Joel, seven – are learning to dance.

It was Bonnie’s dad who got her dancing. She was born in New York where her dad Bobby ran a studio which had been set up by dance legend Fred Astaire.

Her husband David Johnston, 66, teaches ballroom and latin while her daughter Hayley, 14, also performs.

The Car Alan Awards were first introduced in 1953 and are currently presented by The International Dance Teachers’ Association (IDTA).

A spokeswoman for the Association said: “It’s not easy to win one. Dance organisations and societies are invited to nominate people and ultimately decide the winner so they are voted for by their peers.”