TWO talented ballet dancers from a Bacup dance academy are set to perform with the English Youth Ballet.

Dansworks Dance Academy protégés Charlie Morris, 12, and Sarah Brooks, 13, were selected from more than 75 youngsters who auditioned to perform with the EYB when its tour reaches the North West next month.

The pair are currently rehearsing for roles in Coppelia, which will run at the Stockport Plaza from June 13 to14.

Haslingden High School pupil Charlie, from Bacup, has turned down a permanent place in the EYB to take up an offer from the Ballet Associates Scheme in Leeds.

Karen Roe, the principal at Dansworks, which is based at the Pioneer Building, in Alma Street, said she was proud of both dancers.

She said: “I am delighted with their success and they definitely both have a future in dance.

“We have worked really hard with Sarah to get her to the place she is at now. She is a completely different dancer to the one who started here two years ago and she has really grown in confidence and ability.

“Charlie has been dancing here since she was eight and she has grown into a confident performer and really stands out when she is on stage. It was a really good experience for both of them to go to the audition because they will have to do that at some stage if this is the career they decided to go for.” Charlie, who attends classes at Dansworks six days a week, is also a cornet player with Haslingden High School’s brass and wind bands.

She said: “I do limbering, Irish, freestyle, street dance, ballet, tap, musical theatre, lyrical, modern, song and dance and character dance. Dancing is my life.”

Sarah, from Greenmount, near Ramsbottom, added: “Both of us pretty much live for music and dance.”