"KNEE to hip," bellows award-winning choreographer John Ross.

"Neck to neck," the 28-year-old commands. A sea of perplexed faces stares back at him in Swindon Dance's main theatre. The teenagers duly obey though, craning their heads, inching towards their partner's scruff.

"Head to toe!" Half of them plunge to the ground in a blur of hair, flailing arms and more twisted necks to graze their teammate's trainers.

"Some of them have never done dance, some have never done theatre," explains the Scot. "I just want to show them the possibilities, understand how their body moves. It's good to choose a field but it's not good getting locked down in it too much."

This tricky "movement game" is only a fun if challenging prelude to the hard work to come. It is Monday and day one of the Youth Summer School. Across the next five days the 27 youngsters will collaborate on a performance blending dance, theatre and spoken word. They will unveil the fruit of their labour to friends and family on Friday.

The artist and fearless leader guiding them along is John, an acclaimed choreographer with an impressive pedigree.

A trained actor who jumped ship to study dance at the age of 19, he went on to win Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Choreographer Award in 2013 and was named as one of the BBC Performing Arts Fund’s 32 Ones to Watch in 2015.

Keen to experiment between art forms, he partnered up with Prime Theatre to launch an inclusive Youth Summer School at Swindon Dance, one not only open to fledgling dancers but young actors too.

"When I started I was 19 and I walked in this class with people who had been doing ballet since they were two; their legs were way above their head. But I had a fresh plate, I took in everything I was told. I believe anyone can start dancing when they want, if they think they've got it in them."

Prime Theatre and Summer Youth Project stalwart Carli Green, from Eldene, was inspired to join the summer intensive and delve into the unknown world dance by John's discipline-defying journey. That being said he was under no illusion he would be doing somersaults or the splits by week's end.

"I'm not flexible - my body doesn't work in the way a dancer's should," the 19-year-old shakes his head with a laugh. "But  I have confidence. I just liked how John merged dance and theatre. It's interesting to see him come from a theatre perspective. As an actor, you understand your body in a different way to dancers."

The extrovert should have no problem injecting humour and personality into his dance performance.

While picking up intricate routines will be par for the course for many dancers like Rebecca Tuersley, bringing their personality to the fore and shedding their inhibitions will be their biggest challenge yet.

"I want to do acting but I don't have the courage to do it and speak in front of other people," confides the 11-year-old from Old Town, who signed up to the summer school along with her brother Daniel, a member of Prime Youth Theatre. "But if you don't try different things you'll never know whether you like them or not."

Leading such a motley band of performers is no mean feat. Less than three hours into the first session, John has already had to rethink his action plan and go back to the drawing board after one of his ice-breakers fell flat.

"I am definitely more nervous than they are," he admits. "I need to keep them constantly interested, keep changing and adapting. You might think something will be great and it ends up being a total bunch of crap.

"It is very physically and mentally draining for them. I'm looking forward to see what they create collaboratively."

The Youth Summer School performance takes place on Friday 12 at 3.30pm at Swindon Dance.