Hundreds of youngsters have thrilled audiences with their efforts to impress judges in the UK’s largest school-based dance and drama extravaganza this week.
Over two nights the stage of Dundee’s Caird Hall welcomed youngsters from Angus, Dundee and Perth for the area round of Rock Challenge, with schools from Arbroath and Montrose scooping the honours.
The event is celebrating 20 years and with an involvement from 320 schools nationwide, the Be Your Best Foundation will travel to 18 locations across the UK for 38 events featuring some 20,000 youngsters.
On Sunday night, 2014 Scottish champions Arbroath High School set themselves back on the path to glory with their winning performance of Enchanted, a magical tale of children trapped under a witch’s spell.
Stonehaven’s Mackie Academy was second on the opening night of competition.
The Tuesday celebrations centred on Montrose Academy whose spellbinding piece entitled Always Winter but never Christmas saw them pip Forfar Academy’s Hansel and Gretel-inspired performance of A Twisted Tale into second place, ahead of Perth High.
The winners of the two nights qualify for the Scottish finals, which will return to the Caird Hall in June.
Each school chooses their own theme for their eight-minute performance and youngsters have spent the last few months creating, rehearsing and perfecting an array of performance, production and design elements.
UK Rock Challenge senior event manager Samantha Eastwood said: “Students gain a great sense of ownership when they are involved in every aspect and it also gives them a chance to work on skills such as teamwork and leadership in an environment that allows them to explore their imaginations.
“Themes can reflect poignant social issues and messages or can be completely fictional but you can always be assured they will be inspiring and display great artistic flare.”