NINE schools from Christchurch took part in a festival of dance based on children's story books.

Organised by dance teacher, Gemma Mantell, and Dan Moody, school games organiser, who are both from The Grange School, children of all ages performed their finished masterpieces at the Regent's Centre in front of their peers and parents and families.

See all the pictures from the dance festival in a gallery

Gemma said: "The theme for this year was Dance Adventures through Literacy and all of the schools had to create a performance based on a book, with choices including Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Harry Potter and Pinocchio.

"There were around 30 children from each of the nine schools, which meant that we filled up the Regent Centre.

"It's an annual festival hat we organise and Sophie Douglas from Pavilion Dance in Bournemouth was our judge for the event and she was brilliant."

Gemma said that the children taking part were aged between five and 16 and that all of the schools won an award at the end. However, the overall winner of the event was chosen as Christchurch Junior School, who chose an Indian theme of dance. She said that as it was little children taking part in the winning group, the organisers and judge agreed that many books could be interpreted through Indian dance.

"They had all worked hard on their performances and looked really professional. We had all the parents and families sat upstairs and then the children all sat downstairs to watch each-others' dances, which they enjoyed.

"The dance festival is organised to give the children the opportunity to perform and to dance, as well as exploring how ideas could be linked."

She added that last year's theme for the dance festival was the values of the Olympics and next year's event is set to focus on historical events.