Young Stourbridge dancers to perform in classic ballet Swan Lake (From Stourbridge News)

Young Stourbridge dancers to perform in classic ballet Swan Lake

4:00pm Wednesday 19th September 2012 in News

EIGHT young Stourbridge dancers will be appearing in a brand new production of classic ballet Swan Lake at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre this weekend.

Sisters Emma and Amy Bentley, Mia Andrews, Sophie Piper, Emily Pritchard, Harriet Elis, Bethany Hickman and Mary Anderson will dance alongside international principal artists in the English Youth Ballet’s production running on Friday September 21 and Saturday September 22.

The young dancers, chosen more than 300 hopefuls across the region at auditions earlier this year, will take part in three professional performances running at 7.30pm on both nights and also at 2.30pm on Saturday.

Company manager Ben Garner said: “Working with English Youth Ballet will be one of the highlights of these talented young dancers’ careers to date.

“Audiences are in for a unique and exciting experience too. They will be seeing top international principal artists and the best up-and-coming young talent from the region sharing the stage.”

Emma Bentley, aged 12, from Brierley Hill, a pupil at Thorns Community College, trains at the Rachel Dixon School of Dance in Kingswinford and will be playing the role of a Tsar’s courtier.

While 16-year-old sister Amy, a student at Birmingham Ormiston Academy, who also dances at the Rachel Dixon School, will play a nursemaid and Hungarian dancer.

Emily Pritchard, aged 13, of Kingswinford, a pupil at Summerhill School, who trains at the Rachel Dixon School, will also play a nursemaid and Hungarian dancer.

Harriet Ellis, aged 17, from Stourbridge, a student at King Edward VI College, who dances at Henwood School of Dance and the Karen Yates School of Dance, and Bethany Hickman, aged 15, a pupil at The Wordsley School, who dances at Stourbridge Dance Academy, will play swans.

And Sophie Piper, aged 12, of Kingswinford, a pupil at Summerhill, who trains at Select Academy of Dancing, will play a cygnet.

The show, set in Russia at a time when the Mariinsky Ballet was popular with the Tsar and the Russian nobility, tells how Russian Ballet director Baron Von Rothbart schemes to secure Royal patronage through the marriage of his daughter Odile to the Tsar’s son.

For tickets or more information visit website www.grandtheatre.info