ASPIRING dancers took advantage of an open day at one of the town’s most established performing arts schools.

Tanwood School for Performing Arts flung its doors open to the public on Saturday for a day that featured free dance classes and an opportunity for youngsters to get a taster of what the school has to offer at the Liberatus Studio on the Isis Trading Estate in Swindon.

School principal Pollyann Tanner said: “The open day is a great chance for people to try out what we offer including ballroom, tap, jazz, musical theatre, drama and singing.

“The teenagers are more into the performing arts which is the jazz and the musical theatre and drama, and the younger ones all want to be like Angelina Ballerina, so they love the ballet. Some of them get quite nervous which is why their parents come in and watch them, and we are always on hand to talk to the parents and explain to them what we do.

“We are 70 years old in 2014 and over the years we have had successes across the board which is fantastic.

“We’ve had students who have performed in the West End in shows like Dirty Dancing, we’ve had dancers with lead roles in BBC dramas, we’ve got people running their own schools all over the world.”

Over September 22 and 23, Tanwood will launch classes at the De Vere Village in association with the new Health and Fitness Club there called Velocity. For details visit www.tanwood.webs.com