Young ballet dancers were put through their paces at auditions for the Anglo-American Christmas show in Ulverston in 1990.

More than 30 girls turned up at Eddysons on Abbey Road, Barrow.

Show organiser Terry Turner said he was impressed by the attendance and the standard of dancing.

“We found some really super girls. They had obviously all done it before.

"I was surprised by how many turned up and it was great fun,” he said.

Four male singers were still needed for a vocal harmony group for the show, which would be based on traditional Christmas themes.

Barrow’s Imperial School of Dancing, trained by Pauline Barker, won the Harrison Trophy for the dancing school with the highest number of points - 101 - for the competition season in the local carnivals in 1991.

Second were Tappettes School of Dancing with 51 points.

The Imperial School of Dancing did a clean sweep of all six dancing trophies at the final competition of the Grange Carnival.

A total of 30 trophies had been won by the school that season.

Within the school the top-scoring troupes were: 1. Minstrel Magic, 21 points; 2. 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, 18 points; 3. Grease Mania, 16 points.

The school was rehearsing routines for the Ulverston Charter Week Festival of Dance in the Coronation Hall.

Pauline had also been asked to choreograph the pantomime Babes in the Wood to be staged at Forum 28 over Christmas, with ten of her young dancers taking part, providing the chorus line.

Classes were held in St Mary's Hall, Knox Street, Walney on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Freda Hitchen and Angela Hammond, from Millom, were bronze tap dance medal winners in 1991.

The medals followed 12 months of hard work, culminating in examinations in Kendal, which tested them to the top standard of the International Dance Teachers Association.

Their teacher Doreen Burrows was the wife of Millom vicar the Rev Sam Burrows.

Her son Jonathan was a choreographer and soloist with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.