A BICESTER dance school and its pupils will be celebrating its 20th anniversary at the end of the month.

Starting out with just five pupils, the Bicester Dance Academy has gone from strength to strength and is now home to about 120 dance students taking more than 200 classes.

Two decades ago the Bicester academy, based in The Courtyard Youth Arts Centre in Launton Road, was set up by principal Sarah Tree.

She has since been joined by former pupil Eloise Markham, who has taught at the school for about four years.

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The 48-year-old principal said: “I honestly cannot believe it is coming up to 20 years – it has just flown right by.

“Before, I was teaching for about 10 years full-time in Aylesbury but I felt it was time to move on with my own ideas.”

Miss Tree, who lives in Aylesbury, set up the academy to pursue her lifelong dream of running her own dance school.

She said: “It was always dancing for me, from the moment I first saw dancing when I was on a school trip to see a show.

“I do it for the children, seeing their little faces is wonderful.

We had a school trip to the Royal Opera House to see Sleeping Beauty and one of my old pupils was involved and took all the girls back stage, which was fabulous for them.”

The school teaches pupils aged from the age of three up to 18, as well as adult tap classes. Dance classes run four times a week and include pre-school ballet, ballet, tap, modern, lyrical and musical theatre.

Dance student Alice Hobbs, 15, said: “We feel incredibly privileged we go to a dance school where the main concern is the happiness of students.”

Pupils and parents will join the principal in a grand production on Saturday to celebrate the school’s successful doubledecade.

The show will be a culmination of all the pupils’ hard work over the past year bringing together, exam and festival stage dances from students right through the school.

Mother-of-one Ms Tree said: “It will be a party and a showcase for current children and parents.

“I am very excited about the show, it will be great fun to have a party with the children all together and watching everyone from small to big and the adults.

She added: “It was always a dream of mine to set up a school, it has been a lot of hard work.

“It is down to the help from parents and ex-pupils. It is a team effort.

“It is one of the best things about the dance school, the fact that everybody from age three contributes. It is a friendly, nurturing school.”