IT WAS their moment to shine.

Dozens of Hampshire schoolchildren took to the stage last night for the first of five heats of the Be Your Best Southampton Rock Challenge.

In total, youngsters from 87 schools in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will show off their moves at Southampton’s O2 Guildhall this week.

The event is one of many Global Rock Challenge events, which have seen youngsters devise and perform complex dance routines in countries as diverse as Australia, Japan and South Africa.

In Southampton last night, youngsters from the Hampshire Collegiate School in Romsey performed a routine based on the recent economic recession and its effects on high-street retailers.

Partly performed to Jessie J’s Price Tag and Dolly Parton’s Nine to Five, it featured a background of cafes and boutique shops and dancing shop stewardesses.

Viv Olaore, 18, from Winchester, said: “We thought we could do a lot with the financial theme – everyone who went through the recession can relate to it.”

Following the performance, her 16-year-old fellow student, Jessica Crouch from Marchwood, said: “It was great to be up there performing with everyone on stage.”

To mark the centenary of the start of the First World War, teenagers from Testwood Sports College put on a Great Warthemed performance.

As well as featuring dramatic sequences with and strobe lighting, it also focused the aftermath of conflict, with hnurses treating wounded soldiers and fighters returning home.

Twelve-year-old student Ben Baker, from Calmore, said: “We wanted to get the disaster of the war across.”

His 14-year-old fellow student, Will Whitcher, from Totton, added: “Also, we wanted to show different sides to it – for example the nurses did a lot during the war but don’t get mentioned that much.”

Last night’s winning school was Carisbrooke College from Newport, Isle of Wight.

Tonight, students from Bitterne Park School, Itchen College and Upper Shirley High School from Southampton, Peter Symonds College in Winchester and the Henry Cort Community College in Fareham are due to tread the boards in the second heat.

The winners of each heat will automatically go through to compete against other schools from across the south in June, while some of the highest-scoring second- placed schools will also go through.