YORK community volunteers for a dance performance tomorrow night at Imphal Barracks are undergoing Army training for the 7.30pm show.

Adults who responded to an invitation in The Press have joined up with Manor School students to rehearse for their curtain-raiser at the Rosie Kay Dance Company's show 5 Soldiers: The Body Is The Frontline at the York military base.

They are working with York choreographer Sam Lawrence, manager of the 5 Soldiers Community Engagement Programme that will turn the 20 volunteers and students' work into a short performance that explores the lives of families of soldiers who are left behind when their loved ones are posted away. Some volunteers have personal experience of this situation, which has helped to inform the choreography.

Sergeant Anthony Grimes and Staff Sergeant Kevin Hesketh attended two rehearsals at York Railway Institute to teach the volunteers drill and give the dance enthusiasts a taste of army training.

Sam Lawrence said of these sessions: "Learning drill was new to all of us and a real adventure. Sergeant Grimes and Staff Sergeant Hesketh were very patient with us.

"Working with such a diverse group, who all have different experience of dance, has been a really exciting journey and for me it has been an absolute joy. Everyone has shown so much commitment to the project and it will be a pleasure to see the performance tomorrow at Imphal Barracks."

5 Soldiers: The Body Is The Frontline is a dance theatre work created from field research when Rosie Kay joined The 4th Battalion The Rifles and was allowed to join in full battle exercises on Dartmoor and Salisbury Plain. She then visited the military rehabilitation centre, at Headley Court, to see the effects of conflict and training on the soldiers’ bodies.

Rosie has constructed the subsequent dance show with designer Louis Price, composer Annie Mahtani, dramaturg Ben Payne, lighting designer Mike Gunning and visual artist David Cotterell.

5 Soldiers will be performed by five dancers from Rosie's Birmingham company, Duncan Anderson, Chester Hayes, Sean Marcs, Oliver Russell and Shelley Eva Haden, at Imphal Barracks, Fulford Road, York tonight and tomorrow at 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £15, £13 for over-60s, £12 for 12 to 18 year olds, on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person at the Theatre Royal box office in the De Grey Rooms, York. Please note, ticket holders need to bring ID to gain access to Imphal Barracks.

Did you know?

Rosie Kay choreographed the 2013 film musical Sunshine On Leith, featuring songs by The Proclaimers. In the same year, she was the first choreographer to be appointed the Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford.