AN ILKLEY dance academy will mark its tenth anniversary with a weekend of shows at the King's Hall.

WTA Dance Academy will present CS Lewis's classic Narnia adventure The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from November 30 to December 2.

WTA shows at The Kings Hall in the recent past include The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Anybody who has watched a show produced by Wright Theatre Arts Dance Academy knows that they are in for a real treat of theatre, dance and storytelling.

Looking back on the past ten years since their first show, held in the theatre space at Westville School Lynne Wright, founder of the Academy said: “How the school has grown since the early days! Some of the older students have now taken part in every show. This year Sophie Gurung, who stole the show as Captain Hook in Peter Pan in 2016, will perform as Aslan; this will be her final show with WTA. Sophie is a talented performer who has been with the school since it’s foundation and has given many memorable performances one being the part of Mr Tumnus in the schools’ original, much smaller Narnia production in 2008 at Westville. It is wonderful to watch the students develop and amazing to see how professional they have become.

"This Narnia Christmas show will spotlight the different age groups from the local community who attend WTA and the variety of genres we train, including Ballet, Modern Theatre, Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, Dance Drama, Mime and Bollywood.

"The last WTA production was Peter Pan in 2016, which was a big hit with both children and adults. Laura Street (artistic director of aboutNOWish) said: 'This production was truly a celebration of the wonder of dance'.”

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe opens on Thursday, November 30 for a three night run at the King's Hall and Winter Gardens in Ilkley. The evening shows begin at 7pm, with an extra matinee performance on Saturday, December 2 at 2pm.

To help make it easy to choose your seats (or book a box!) there is an online booking page available with tickets expected to sell out fast as prices have been held at £12 for adults, £8 for children. There is an introductory £8 price for all tickets for the curtain raising premiere on Thursday, November 30, which is an opportunity for any local groups to get a great deal for a fabulous night’s entertainment. There will be light refreshments on the night and work is ongoing with local eateries to get some early bird special deals lined up which will be added the WTA Dance Academy website soon. Anyone wanting to find out more about the classes at WTA or how to book tickets for the show can find everything they need at www.wtadanceacademy.com.