They were girls from Bundarra Central School, and arrived with the school’s dance co-ordinator, Louise McKinnon, to debut a well-rehearsed dance routine to a medley of music from Sister Act.

The 17 students were fully dressed in familiar nuns’ habits, and seemed very demure when the music began. Moments later the music changed, and the girls were jiving and shimmying to rock ‘n’ roll, and moving joyously before the crowd.

Toes were tapping and hands patting to the music through the audience. At the end, the crowd called for an encore, so the students performed it a second time with an even bigger round of applause.

It was their first public performance of the routine. They will take the show on the road to the Tamworth Dance Festival in mid-August to share their hard work.