Way to Go: Erin Perotta, Levittown

Erin Perotta has stepped her way to the international level of a prestigious dance competition.

The eighth-grader at Jonas E. Salk Middle School in Levittown was named a winner this winter in the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas, a regional Irish step-dancing competition in Philadelphia.

The achievement qualifies her and 17 other dancers from the mid-Atlantic region for the 2012 World Irish Dancing Championships, to be held next month in Belfast.

To earn the spot, Perotta said she practiced her step-dancing two to three hours a day.

"I have to be devoted and willing to give up activities with friends and family sometimes in order to be the best I can be," she said.

Perotta has been dancing since the second grade. She currently trains under the instruction of teachers Sean Reagan, Colleen Quigley and Irene Reagan at Inishfree School of Irish Dance, which has five locations on Long Island. She also competed in the 2008, 2009 and 2011 national competitions in Tennessee and the 2010 national competition in Florida.

She said she aspires to become a step-dancing teacher and judge. While in Ireland at the dancing championships, Perotta plans to visit relatives who live there.