Ballerina Evie's living her '˜Swan Lake' dream

Nine year-old Evie Scarlett is rehearsing for Swan Lake which will be presented by English Youth Ballet at the Grand Opera House in Belfast from November 9-11.

The ballet will star international principal dancers – Samantha Camejo, Amy Drew, Monica Tapiador, Phillip Tunstall, Richard Read, Oliver Speers, Trevor Wood and Steven Wheeler.

All the soloist and corps de ballet roles in the production will be performed by 100 of the finest dancers (aged eight – 18) from Northern Ireland and Evie is one of them.

English Youth Ballet (EYB) held a huge audition for the ballet at Methodist College in April when nearly 300 young hopeful dancers turned up to the two auditions where Director and founder of EYB – Miss Janet Lewis MBE – was on the lookout for the hottest young dance talent to join her award-winning company for the production in Belfast. The lucky dancers heard they had been accepted on the day.

Miss Lewis said: “EYB is all about providing extra performance experience to young dancers. We saw a very pleasing standard at the audition.”

EYB has helped many of the UK’s top talent springboard their training progress and careers into some of the world’s greatest ballet companies – including the Royal Ballet Company and English National Ballet.

Rehearsals for the ballet are taking place at Methodist College Belfast.

Oliver Speers coaches the young dancers in rehearsals and he will also be starring in the role of Prince Sergei.

He said: “The young dancers are treated like professional dancers during rehearsals – we work them hard but the results are fantastic. They learn what the life of a professional dancer is like. They are living their dream and they just love it!”

Evie and her fellow young cast members will rehearse for just 10 days for the production for which tickets are now available online at www.goh.co.uk