A city dance company will be celebrating its first birthday by performing for royalty in London this week at a green garden party.

Slanted Youth, a group of eight dancers aged from 14 to 19 based at City College Norwich, will be performing at the Prince of Wales' 12-day sustainable living garden party at Clarence House in London this weekend.

The company, which was set up last September by Bryony Moore and Meg Howard as part of Slanted Dance, will perform six pieces in various styles on a special stage, using the dancers' own kinetic energy to power the lights and sound. They have been told representatives from the Royal Family will be present, but do not yet know who.

Tutor Bryony Moore said the opportunity to go to the garden party came about through the company's connections with a DJ who will also be appearing at the event.

'We have literally only had two weeks' notice – it has been a very last-minute thing,' she said. 'We have had a few new members join us very recently and this is a real challenge for them –we're throwing them in the deep end and they're doing very well so far.'

'They are all so excited about it. At the rehearsal on Saturday they were absolutely dancing off the walls. It's a great opportunity for us to start them out with a really prestigious performance, which is a big part of what we do - we teach the technical side but we do try to make sure the students get to perform regularly as well, as that's what they will need when they come to audition for the next stage of their careers.'

Danielle Lambert, 15, said she was excited about the opportunity to perform for royalty. 'I'm really looking forward to it,' she said. 'I'm really scared of something going wrong, but I think it's going to be great.

'We're going to be sharing the stage with Matthew Cutler from Strictly Come Dancing, and it's going to be really amazing performing for all those people.'

New company member Marcus Bell, 14, who came to Norwich from Dubai four months ago, said: 'I haven't been here for very long and to come here and do something so prestigious so quickly is just amazing.'