Young performers from across the area will dance and act in Barking's pantomime this year.

Polka Dot Pantomimes is staging Snow White at The Broadway Theatre in Barking from December 1 to January 1, 2023.

The company held auditions in September, inviting young dancers and actors from the area to attend. 

From those, a chorus of 21 young performers were selected who began rehearsals on November 12.

Professional dancers from the area were also chosen to perform in Snow White.

Principal dancer Coral Ironside, 24, who is from Barkingside, graduated with a BA in Professional Dance and Musical Theatre from The Urdang Academy in 2019.

She said: "When I was younger I used to do pantos at the Kenneth More Theatre in Ilford and then I did a couple at Barking as a juvenile as well so it's nice to come back as a pro.

"It's lovely that it's here so all of my family can come see me 'cause it's so local. It's just nice to be somewhere I know and somewhere I'm so familiar with."

Coral continued: "Us dancers only started on Wednesday so we did all of our dances in Act 1 on Wednesday, yesterday we cleaned and then today we've learnt one more dance. We met the kids yesterday who are in it too.

"It's lovely working with the kids. They all looked so excited and we watched what they'd been working on and it's so impressive considering they haven't had many rehearsals."

She said we can expect "lots of magic, lots of spectacular technical [tricks] and lots of dancing".

"It's very heavily exhausting", Coral added. "Loads of lifts, and we've got a bit of street [dance] going on and a couple of tiktok dances of course to please the younger kids.

"The script is really funny. I feel like we're always laughing and the principal cast are so good at engaging us in rehearsals; I keep laughing at something I've heard so many times but somehow it's still so funny!"

Discounts are available on tickets for schools, family tickets and party bookings.

Book tickets at www.thebroadwaybarking.com/sales/genres/pantomime/snow-white.