AN IMPRESSIVE troupe of junior dancers from Hutton have pirouetted to their best ever performance at a national ballet competition.
In total, 16 wannabe Darcey Bussells from the Adagio School of Dance competed in the grade one and two ballet contests at the Imperial Classical Ballet Junior Awards held last month.
Maja Szecsenyi and Yasmin Reader, both nine, picked up third place in each class respectively.
From approximately 400 dancers aged five to 12 taking part, the academy, which operates from both Hutton Poplars Hall and Hutton and Shenfield Union Church, managed to qualify 15 of its entrants into the finals in Radlett, Hertfordshire.
Bronwen Patching, 42, an ex-professional dancer who set up Adagio in 1998, was delighted with the result.
"I am really proud, the children have worked so hard and been so committed and driven, and trained and trained," she said.
"Their achievement has been outstanding." The results have capped an exciting two months for Adagio, which now boasts 300 members on its books and offers lessons in ballet, tap, modern, jazz, hip-hop and musical theatre.
It has secured as a patron, Anthony Van Laast, a West End and Broadway renowned choreographer, whose credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, starring Jason Donovan, and Mamma Mia! Mrs Patching, who herself worked on the West End stage, says she is "absolutely thrilled" Mr Van Laast is on board.
At the Orpington Festival of Dance, which also took place last month, Adagio took a number of prizes. Molly Villiers, 12, won in the intermediate ballet, Amelia Nolan, 14, claimed the senior ballet win, April Goulding, 12, danced to glory in the intermediate tap and the intermediate modern and Charlotte Ball, 15, was victorious in the senior modern.
