Cork students captivate audience at Disneyland Paris with electric Lion King performance

Students from a performing arts school in Cork left audiences captivated at Disneyland Paris earlier this month following their energetic Lion King-inspired performance, with an invitation extended for the school to make a return visit.

Talented youngsters in The Aileen Coffey Academy (The ACA) in Blackpool were chosen back in 2020 to perform but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, their dream trip was scuppered two weeks before they were due to fly.

Three years later, following another audition, a group of current and former students were finally able to take to the main stage of the entertainment resort last Saturday week.

“It was amazing. The whole weekend was fantastic from start to finish,” director of the school, Aileen Coffey, told The Echo. “They actually emailed me to say they’d love to welcome us back again.” 

Cognisant of the expense of the trip, Ms Coffey said it would likely be towards the end of next year before the school would consider a return trip but said the email was a fantastic vote of confidence.

“Being invited back to anything is amazing – especially Disneyland Paris!” she said.

The performance, which was just shy of 20 minutes, gave a short synopsis of the story of The Lion King told through dance.

“They [the students] really got the VIP treatment out there.

“They were treated like the cast at Disney and they got to meet so many different reps and producers and stage crew and stage management so they got to see the whole background of it all which was really, really great.

“It was magical really. It was the whole Disney feel from the minute we got there until the minute we left,” Ms Coffey said.

Perhaps the most magical element of all, however, was the reception the students got to their performance.

“Throughout the day people could pass through but nobody walked through when our gang came on, everybody stopped... the place was packed,” Ms Coffey explained.

“One parent got chatting to an elderly couple afterwards and they were saying that they lived three minutes from Disney and they have seasonal membership and they come in three times a week just to watch everything that’s going on.

“The man is originally from Ireland and the woman was from Finland and they were just blown away.

“They said they [students in the ACA] should come back every week! That was really nice to get such positive feedback.

“It was good for the kids to hear that as well and it was good for them to see the crowd stop and watch the performance that they worked so hard on.”