Beauty’s ballet puts talented North Herts youngsters in theatre spotlight for Stevenage show

When one of the world’s best-loved ballets comes to Stevenage’s Gordon Craig Theatre next week you can bet that many members of the audience will be wide awake – keeping a sharp eye out for their young stars in the making among the cast of Sleeping Beauty.

The English Youth Ballet production combines the talents of 100 young performers aged from eight to 18 from Stevenage, North Herts and further afield who have been working for months to prepare for the show and seasoned professionals who will take the principal roles.

There have been 60 hours of rehearsals at Stevenage’s Nobel School in the run-up to the show.

The familiar story – by coincidence also the theme for this year’s panto production at the same theatre – features choreography by EYB artistic director Janet Lewis and her team and a score by Tchaikovsky.

Principal dancer Amy Drew, who will be playing Aurora, said: “The rehearsals in Stevenage are going very well and the children are very expressive and energetic.

“Our productions are drama-led and the kids are really using their bodies and faces to bring the story of the ballet to life.”

Joining her on stage will be Brenden Bratulic, who said: “I am teaching the six boys in the cast – they are really open to learning from me and they are working well as a team.

“They are doing really well.”

Among the cast is Barclay School pupil Liberty Ferguson, 12, who also trains at the town’s Footworks School of Dance.

She said: “The good thing is that you get to work with professional dancers.

“It is good to see how confident they are when they perform and I try to be like them.”

Elodie Silver, an eight-year-old pupil at Hitchin’s Whitehill Junior School, is another young member of the cast.

She said: “I am not used to doing so much dancing. I have made lots of new friends here. I like being with all the older children who are so good at dancing.

“I have told my friends all about it and they are excited about seeing me in the show.”

The English Youth Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty will be staged on Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week at 7.30pm with a 2.30pm matinee on Saturday afternoon.

For tickets call 01438 363200 or visit the website at www.gordon-craig.co.uk.

It’s expected that the Stevenage run of the touring show will raise as much as £2,500 for the children’s ward at the town’s Lister Hospital.