Juniors in Magic show

It was a wonderful mix of amazing dancing, happy faces, glittering costumes, amazing staging and lighting effects and sheer delight and exuberance from all the young dancers who ranged in age from 5-12 years old.

For many of the young performers this was their first time on a stage performing in a proper dance show, for others it represented a welcome return to theatre stage after missing their last two planned shows due to pandemic restrictions.

The feeling of anticipation had been building for weeks during the rehearsal and costume fitting days, so it was with huge excitement that the curtains opened at the Eastgate on Saturday and Sunday afternoon to reveal the amazing show.

‘Magic’ opened with a stunning ballet solo by Nina McDowell, which transitioned into an upbeat, glittering Jazz dance to ‘Could it be Magic’ which wowed the audiences.

The show, which included 30 specially-choreographed dances in Jazz, Modern, Highland, Ballet, Tap, Acrobatic dance and Street Dance, featured more than 700 separate costumes and was the result of hard work by staff and pupils over many months.

Both shows were sold out weeks in advance and the audience reaction afterwards was overwhelming.

One said: “Absolutely fantastic show – we were blown away”, while another enthused: “Brilliant – what absolute pleasure to watch, I was either beaming with pride or sobbing throughout”.

Fiona Henderson, school principal and artistic director, was delighted.

She said: “We were so happy to have our Peebles Junior School pupils back on stage. They all gave wonderful performances, and our teachers are incredibly proud of them.

"They were all really looking forward looking forward to their show and had been talking about it for weeks.

"After such a tough couple of years we really wanted to come back with a bang and that’s what we did … we couldn’t be happier for them.”