A TALENTED young student is hoping to become a star of the stage after winning a coveted place at the Royal Ballet School.

Tobias de Gromoby, 11, of Charminster, Bournemouth, started taking dance classes at the Hammond Academy of Performing Arts in Winton when he was six.

For the last three years, he has been one of more than 400 junior associates of the Royal Ballet School and has already performed in Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House.

Every year, around 1,000 young people audition for a place at the school, but only 24 students are accepted into year seven.

His mother Catherine said: “I loved ballet as a child, but only did it as a hobby. When Toby was coming up to his seventh birthday, he said he wanted to learn to dance. He came to one of the general classes and loved it.

“He has occasionally been teased, but not really at school. They’ve known him since he was tiny and he’s always been interested in dance.”

Park School pupil Tobias spends eight to nine hours a week in dance classes and does tap, modern street, hip-hop and ballroom as well as his favourite classical ballet, under the tuition of Suzanne Hammond.

“I enjoy it loads. I can’t keep still when I hear music,” he explained.

Tobias will be going away in September to the Royal Ballet’s Lower School at White Lodge in Richmond Park, where he will have four hours of academic study and four hours of dancing each day.

“I’m going to love it there, I know,” he said.

He could progress to the Upper School in Covent Garden when he is 16 and hopes to become a principal dancer.

More than 70 per cent of the members of the Royal Ballet attended the Royal Ballet School.