SISTERS will take to the stage in a professional ballet production after being selected from the hundreds who auditioned.

Joanna and Olivia Lake, aged 13 and 16-years-old respectively, were selected from hundreds of dancers as part of a 100-strong dance troupe for a professional production of the ballet Sleeping Beauty.

Auditions were held by the English Youth Ballet (EYB) at the Gordon Craig Theatre in June, which saw more than 200 young hopeful dancers turn up.

After being selected, the sisters, who attend the North London Collegiate School and the Henrietta Barnett School, have now started ten days of rehearsals for the ballet at the Nobel School in Stevenage.

Principal dancer Amy Drew, who has previously danced with the Tasmanian Classical Ballet Company and the National Ballet Company of Ireland, has been coaching the dancers and will also be dancing the leading role of Aurora in the production.

She said: “The young dancers are treated like professional dancers during rehearsals – we work them hard but the results are fantastic.

“They learn what the life of a professional dancer is like. They are living their dream and they just love it.”

Being held at the Gordon Craig Theatre, in Stevenage, from October 16 to 17, the ballet will star several international principal dancers alongside 100 of the finest dancers aged eight to 18 from Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The EYB has helped many of the UK’s top talent springboard their careers into some of the world’s greatest ballet companies including the English National Ballet.