SCOTLAND'S best young dancers are preparing for a trip to Australia... but they need funds to help their journey.

The National Youth Dance Company of Scotland (NYDCS) is to take part in a cultural exchange but they need to raise £3100 by March 31.

A group of 13 young dancers are set to travel on what will be a trip of a lifetime - if they can raise funds by March 31.

Artistic director Anna Kenrick said: "The Scottish dance world is quite smaller and getting smaller, there aren't a lot of regular contemporary dance groups so the pool of people to work with is also small.

"So you have to look elsewhere and this is a life changing opportunity for them to have the chance to work in Australia's thriving dance scene.

"This will be a hard week of training and dance but I hope it challenges them and makes them better young people and better artists."

NYDCS was set up in 2011 to match similar projects in England and Wales as Scotland had no national youth company.

Each year the very best performers audition to become part of the company and 13 are chosen.

They work with Anna and guest choreographers to develop their creative and technical skills.

Working with Anna, the dancers create a piece of contemporary dance that is then toured around the UK and internationally.

This year's piece, Divergent, will take the company further afield than they have ever been before.

They will perform it to Australian audiences during the exchange from April 1 to 14 with Yellow Wheel Dance Company, one of Australia's top youth dance companies.

Alexandra Tsiapi will be one of the dancers representing Scotland on the exchange.

The 21-year-old is originally from Athens, in Greece, but moved to Glasgow as her brother was at university here and joined a course at Anniesland College.

She said: "I started dancing when I was about eight years old. I was dancing for so long that it was a case of I didn't have anything else that interested me. Dance is my life.

"NYDCS has been a great experience to work with so many talented people, people with new ideas. And getting to create a new piece that is going to tour around the UK and Australia has been eye opening."

Divergence is based on the poem Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and, while choregraphed by Anna, the young dancers had input into the final piece.

Alexandra added: "I am very interested to see how people dance around the world. Every country has a very unique style that comes from the people who live there and the culture they were brought up in.

"This is my final year at college and my life's goal is to be part of a company where I can be a dancer or choreographer and travel around the world.

"But I haven't found the perfect one I would like to join. Maybe I will have to create my own."

Clara Cowen is studying Contemporary Dance at the prestigious Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London but travels up to Glasgow once a month to take part in NYDCS.

She only found out about Scotland's national youth dance company when she moved to London and regrets not auditioning sooner.

The 20-year-old, who has been dancing since the age of three, said: "It's quite hard travelling up and down to Glasgow on ridiculous modes of transport and I don't get much sleep.

"But when you're exhausted and then you find something within yourself it's really amazing.

"Anna gets every ounce of energy out of us. It's definitely made me the dancer I am."

She is now looking forward to the trip to Melbourne.

Clara added: "I am so excited, I have always wanted to go to Australia. I'm trying not to think about it too much as my head would be in the clouds all the time."

To donate see uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/nydcsaustralia