Touring 'young cast' programme puts 700 untrained inner city dancers on stage

A Newcastle dance company is celebrating a major milestone after putting 700 untrained children on stage in its professional touring productions.

Launched in 2012, balletLORENT's young cast initiative invites students aged six and up from inner city primaries to perform alongside professional dancers. At each stop on tour, a new cast is selected from a local school, offering many pupils their first ever theatre experience, either as an audience member or performer.

 Productions have included Snow White, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin, with children appearing in costume as forest creatures, Maypole dancers, skateboarders, and even lead characters such as young Snow White and Rumpelstiltskin. Performances have taken place in venues from Darlington Hippodrome to London’s Sadler’s Wells. Former young cast members include Freya Allan, who joined balletLORENT’s Rapunzel at the Oxford Playhouse in 2013 at age 11 and has gone on to star in Netflix series The Witcher and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

James MacGillivray, education and projects manager, balletLORENT, said: "We started developing this model in 2012. Initially, we worked with young people with dance experience, but we soon shifted to a partnership model with local state schools. "This allows us to give opportunities to children who have never danced, performed on stage, or even attended a theatre production. We’ve now had 700 children join us on stages across the UK."

The programme, which is supported by the Garfield Weston, John Ellerman and Freshgate Trust Foundations, as well as The Sir James Reckitt Charity, prioritises enthusiasm and spirit over formal dance training. Workshops in schools are led by professional dancers, with children helping to shape their own choreography. The most recent tour of Snow White featured 60 children from Derby, Doncaster, Hull, Worthing, East London and Darlington.

balletLORENT artistic director and founder Liv Lorent said the initiative has a lasting impact. "For many children, taking part in a professional stage production is a unique and transformative experience. It not only builds their confidence and creativity but also enhances their ability to collaborate, communicate, and express themselves in new ways. "Schools benefit immensely too from our young cast initiative, as these workshops enrich their arts provision and inspire both students and teachers alike. Many children, who have not previously engaged with a schools' extracurricular dance and drama activities, sign up after our dancers visit."

At Darlington Hippodrome this spring, ten pupils from Heathfield Primary School took to the stage. Among them was eight-year-old Divine, who said: "It was a big opportunity for me and not something everyone gets to do. I wore an owl costume with feathers and moved like an animal. Normally I move like a human, so it was a nice change!"

His classmate CJ, also eight, said the experience changed her future aspirations. "Seeing everyone clapping at the end, maybe 5,000 people, [the Hippodrome has a capacity of 1,000] was my favourite part," she said. "I felt proud and happy, and my worries about doing it right disappeared. Now I want to be an actor."

For eight-year-old Dora, in common with CJ and Divine, it was her first time inside a theatre. "It was a one-time opportunity," she said. "If you don’t take it, you might not get the chance again. It made my legs hurt from moving so fast, but it was worth it because without children in the show, it wouldn’t be as fun to watch."

Divine agreed, saying: "I think having just adults on stage can get a bit boring. They're normally the ones performing, so when children step in for the first time, it's a bit different."

The company also runs a year-round Youth Academy for ages 7-12 and Creative Studio for teenagers in Newcastle’s West End, offering free opportunities for young people to develop their skills in dance, theatre, music and film.