ACTOR and dancer AJ Powell is known in York for his performances as the "lovely Brummie" in the Theatre Royal pantomime but this summer he has had another string to his bow in the city.

He has choreographed the York Stage Musicals cast for the York premiere of Sister Act, the musical with the dancing and rapping nuns.

"This cast has been one of the most hard-working I've ever worked with," says AJ.

"I've been pretty ruthless and tough with them but it's paid off. Some of the women in the cast have not had much dance experience, so, like Deloris Van Cartier having to teach the nuns how to sing, I was thinking, 'What am I going to do', but from the first day of rehearsals to now, there's been such a dramatic difference in what they've achieved.

"I got quite emotional the other day in rehearsals watching them and seeing how much they had improved since we started in mid-June. We worked every weekend for four or five weekends, then had a month off for the summer holidays and then picked it up again and the results have been fantastic."

One factor AJ had to consider when creating his choreography was the nuns' habits. "Because of the restrictive costumes, you can't do a lot of pirouettes, so there's had to to be a lot of hand movement and lots of 'vogueing' instead," he says.

AJ saw the West End production of Sister Act but has been keen to bring his own choreography to the show.

"How I choreograph is to make it how I would want to see it on stage, so if it's pleasing for me, hopefully it will be for everyone else," he says.

"I kind of had a picture in advance for each routine that I would do, with a different style for each one; a foxy style for one, a showgirl style for another; a bit of lyrical, balletic dance at one point; a bit of Eighties dancing like Fame; a lot of disco and pure musical theatre at the end."

Nuns made their rather quieter mark in The Sound Of Music before Sister Act turned them into a song-and-dance act. "But The Sound Of Music was predominantly singing; in Sister Act, not only is there harmony singing but there is all the choreography too. It's been quite a lot for the cast to take in," says AJ.

Come November, he will be switching his attention to rehearsals for York Theatre Royal's 2014-2015 pantomime, Old Mother Goose. "I'll be playing the Bad Fairy; I'm called Puck this time," revealsAJ, who will be appearing alongside Dame Berwick Kaler from December 11 to January 31 2015.

York Stage Musicals' Sister Act runs at the Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday; performances at 7.30pm tonight, 5pm and 8pm tomorrow and 2.30pm and 7.30pm on Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024.