A businessman who has overcome more than most is enjoying success – and a touch of glitz and glamour – in his new venture.

Peter Arnold launched PACRE (Peter Arnold Classic Race Engines) in 2011 after being made redundant. The business specialised in engineering, reconditioning and race tuning Classic Honda four-stroke engines, and Mr Arnold entered his own team in the prestigious Isle of Man Classic TT.

But tragedy struck last year when a huge fire broke out at industrial units in Winterbourne Abbas, destroying the business he had built up.

Eight fire engines and 45 firefighters battled the blaze at its height, and electricity was cut off to the village during the incident in January last year.

“The whole business was wiped out in one go,” Mr Arnold said. “I had nothing, because everything I owned was in that unit. I was left with the clothes I was wearing and what was in my car.”

With support from friends, Mr Arnold rebuilt his life and gained a teaching qualification at Kingston Maurward.

And last September he launched First Class Dance School – which has been so successful he has now expanded it to include children’s classes, which start this week.

All teachers are qualified with the ISTD (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing) and continue their professional development. They are certified with enhanced DBS (CRB), first aiders and fully insured.

Mr Arnold has enjoyed his own taste of dancing limelight, when he and dance partner Edel won the ISTD regional awards held at Bournemouth Pavilion in both the ballroom and Latin styles.

Now he is teaching what he knows to others with a school offering tuition across Dorchester, Weymouth and Bridport which aims to provide a light-hearted but professional and informative structured programme.

Dances taught include all the ballroom and Latin dances as seen on BBC’s TV series Strictly Come Dancing.

Mr Arnold said: “Dancing is always something I’ve enjoyed, and I always had an ambition to do something like this.”