A MYSTERY benefactor has been helping pupils at a city school find their dancing feet.
Youngsters from St George's Primary have been having dance lessons from professional teachers after a former pupil stepped in to pay for them.
Two dancers from the Northern Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) have visited the school three afternoons a week for the past year.
It has allowed the whole school to get to find their creative side.
Now, pupils have put on a Christmas concert at NAPA in Anlaby Road, to show off their new skills.
Louise Oddy, headteacher at St George's Primary School, said: "These lessons are something we could never fund ourselves.
"Our parents are absolutely bowled over by it. Our mystery benefactor approached NAPA and said he wanted to support in some way and they suggested supporting dance in a school. As he was a pupil at St George's, he wanted to support us.
"We don't know who he is, just that he has done very well and is no longer in the area.
"What he has done has made such a fantastic impression on the children.
"The quality of teaching at NAPA is fantastic. It has helped the children's self-esteem, confidence and has offered them the opportunity to perform on a real stage with beautiful costumes."
The concert this week included all 240 children at the St George's Road school in west Hull. It allowed pupils to show off their dance skills, which included modern moves and lifts.
Mrs Oddy said: "They have all loved it. They have really enjoyed doing it and being at a real theatre has been major for them.
"Everything from getting ready and getting dressed up has been a wonderful opportunity for them. Their costumes are absolutely phenomenal."
The pupils have had the dancing lessons for a year and the school's mystery benefactor has promised to fund them until the summer.
Mrs Oddy said: "It is a pity more people don't come forward. The pupils know him as our mystery benefactor but we have never met him.
"These are proper dance teachers and what they can get out of the children is phenomenal.
"It is also really inclusive. The boys are enjoying it as much as the girls."
