FOUR girls from Barry will be having a ball, performing in the English Youth Ballet's production of Cinderella in Hollywood.
The four secondary students - Nia Haf Davies, 11; Azaria Karim, 12; Sienna Thompson, 16; and Alis Lloyd, 14 - were selected earlier this year to join EYB following video auditions.
They are now in rehearsals in preparation for the production, where they will perform alongside international professional dancers.
Nia, who trains at Nicola Peros Ballet Academy and attends Ysgol Gwymraeg Bro Morgannwg, described feeling free and being able to express her emotions as the best things about being a dancer.
"I'm excited to perform again with EYB," she said, having had her first professional performance with the company at the age of eight.
Away from dance, Nia also does Tae Kwondo, and is soon to grade for her black stripe belt.
"My dream is to be a black belt ballerina,"
she explained.
Sienna also attends Nicola Peros Ballet Academy, while Alis is part of Lesley Tipples, and Azaria is part of Les Jumelles Academy of Dance.
The girls will be joined in the production by Lyndsey Fraser, an EYB principal dancer, who used to dance with the Vienna Festival Ball.
Ms Fraser said she wishes she had danced with EYB at a young age, and explained that the dancers "learn so much" about the artistry of ballet, and performance skills.
"The sets and costumes in the production are superb," she said of the production itself.
"And the whole experience is one the young dancers (and audiences) will never forget."
More about Cinderella in Hollywood
Set in the glamorous era of 1950s Hollywood movies, this lavish production draws its inspiration from the film star Grace Kelly who met Prince Rainier of Monaco at a press party and later married him.
Cinderella is a seamstress on a film set and the Fairy Godmother is her late mother - a former movie star of the 1930s.
Her wicked sisters are Hollywood starlets competing with each other for starring film roles.
The Prince meets Cinderella at the press party but at midnight she flees from the scene leaving a sparkly silver pointe-shoe as the only clue to her identity.
The stage for the production will be set in the New Theatre, Cardiff, on August 19 and 20.
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