TALENTED dancer Eleanor Ferguson is jumping for joy after winning a place at a prestigious ballet school.

Eleanor, 10, from Didsbury, beat hundreds of girls at X Factor-style auditions to get onto the Royal Ballet Junior School Associate scheme.

For Eleanor it's a big leap closer to her dream of dancing professionally.

Nervous

Withington Girls' School pupil Eleanor said: "I was really nervous. I wasn't sure how well I had done because lots of the girls looked really good.

"When I found out I had got the place I was really excited, I was jumping up and down. Ballet is in my heart and it is the thing that I want to do."

Mum Carolyn, 48, a yoga teacher, said: "She is always dancing - we can be sitting at the tea table and this leg extension will stretch out towards the ceiling. She has a natural love of dancing."

Eleanor's dance teacher Caroline Wright is a former member of the Royal Ballet.

She said: "It is every little girl's dream to be a ballerina and hopefully Ellie will have a long career."

What do you think? Have your say.