Choreographer has a ball as debut lands panto win

Ebony Clarke said she would be "forever grateful" for the award

A dancer said winning a top pantomime award for choreographing her debut solo venture was "mental".

Ebony Clarke took home the Pantomime Awards best choreography prize for her innovation on Cinderella at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton.

Ms Clarke said that after being in the theatre industry for about 10 years, and "looking after people's" work, she decided it was time to do it "on my own".

Being involved in the show by Evolution Productions, that ran during December, was "a dream", she said.

The winners of the awards were announced at a ceremony in Woking, Surrey, last Sunday.

Ms Clarke worked with Joanne Clifton on Cinderella, who has featured on Strictly Come Dancing

Ms Clarke said she had performed in pantomimes and been associate director and choreographer on a number of hit shows including Romeo & Juliet and Everybody's Talking About Jamie.

"I was like 'Hey I want to try and do this on my own and see if I can do it' and Emily and Paul, who run Evolution Productions, were like 'Yeah we're going to give you a shot' and Northampton was the the one and here we are.

"It's mental."

Her success was down to planning, and "working out what songs we're putting in, how long it's going to be, whose going to be in that number, what the sets look like, what principals are in it, all the logistics, before we start getting creative with the choreography".

Andy Day (right) played Buttons in the panto

Working with the cast, including Andy Day from BBC's CBeebies was a joy, she said.

"He was so ready for anything I threw at him.

"His song, that opened Act Two, Boom Boom Shake the Room, he loved it, he was so good.

"The whole process was a dream."

She said "it's been a mental couple of week" as she had been to the Olivier Awards 2025, for her work as resident choreographer on the recent West End show, Why Am I So Single, by the same team behind Six The Musical.