They'll point their toes, stretch their legs and pirouette across the Baycourt stage next Wednesday night, but the real spotlight will be on a very strong message of anti-bullying in schools.

Ten Otumoetai College students will perform a lyrical group dance which raises awareness about bullying – as well as a jazz group dance, hip-hop solo and jazz funk duo – as part of ‘The Night is Young' at Baycourt Theatre on August 10.

Alex Vanstone and fellow Otumoetai College Year 10 students will perform at The Night is Young on Wednesday. Photo: Chris Callinan.

‘The Night is Young' invites 10 Bay of Plenty secondary schools to showcase their talents in performing arts on the Baycourt stage.

The night aims to bring together a variety of talents Bay of Plenty youth have in all fields of performing arts. It incorporates not only those who perform on the stage, but also those who have skills in back stage and technical areas of theatre performance.

Year-10 student Alex Vanstone helped choreograph a jazz funk duo and the lyrical group dance.

'For our duo we just wanted to have fun with it,” says Alex. 'The theme for our lyrical group dance is ‘be brave'. It's about bullying, so we just wanted to let people know that it's still a major issue around schools in our area.

'Our lyrical piece portrays a message and is nice and beautiful to watch.”

Alex likes to challenge herself with choreography.

'I like to have fun and entertain people, that's just who I am and it really challenges me to push me further in my dance as well.

'It's just really cool to show people how much talent you have.

'I like to show a message with my dances that I choreograph. I like to show something different to everyone else on-stage.”

Alex says the Otumoetai College dance group are advanced dancers, with the Year-10 students learning the Year-11 dance curriculum.

'We just want to be a group that stands out and everyone understands and feels what we've been doing and enjoying it.”

She feels privileged the school has allowed the students to express themselves through choreography for ‘The Night is Young'.

'It also shows what talent the different schools in Tauranga have as young students.”

‘The Night is Young' is at Baycourt Community and Arts Theatre on Wednesday, August 10. Tickets cost $9.50 for students and Friends of Baycourt or $15 for adults from Ticketek and Baycourt Theatre.