A RIBBLE Valley dancer has been offered a place at one of the world’s most famous classical dance schools.

Gabrielle Slinger, of Clitheroe, has been accepted to be a Junior Associate with the Royal Ballet School – one of the greatest centres of ballet training where admission is based purely on talent and potential.

The associate programme nurtures dancers between the ages of eight and 15 and is designed to augment an individual’s current training while introducing them to The Royal Ballet School’s System of Training.

Gabrielle, 9, will continue to study with her regular dance teacher at the Angela Westwell School of Dance on Moor Lane in Clitheroe but she’ll also have the opportunity to perform with The Royal Ballet or the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Mum Samantha said: “It’s a fantastic achievement and we are really proud.

“All she does is dance and she has five classes a week and then there’s all the competitions.

“We don’t know how long she will be there, it will all depend on how she develops and grows.

“She has been dancing since she was three and we don’t know where she gets it from – I can’t dance and nobody else in the family has ever danced.”

The school was founded in 1926, when Dame Ninette de Valois opened her Academy of Choreographic Art as a repertory ballet company and school, collaborating with Lilian Baylis, lessee and manager of the Old Vic Theatre.

The Brookside Primary School pupil will also be representing The Angela Westwell School of Dance in Clitheroe at the St Mary’s Centre in the school’s latest show Dancing for Decades next month.

Tickets costing £8 for adults and £6 for concessions are on sale now for performances on Friday, July 3, at 7pm, Saturday, July 4, at 2pm and at Sunday, July 5, at 2pm.

Telephone 01200 444211.