A BOY is showing he can keep up with the girls when it comes to ballet and contemporary dance.

Brecon High School student Berwyn Cooper has been accepted into one of the world’s most famous dance schools – the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London.

The 16-year-old who has just sat his GCSEs has been dancing for six years after he saw a show featuring his older sister Bethan which featured a male lead. The show was Giselle and the male lead was Harlan Rust, who has gone on to become a professional dancer.

Berwyn said: “I started dancing because I watched Giselle at the local theatre which my sister was performing in, and after seeing the male lead I realised that boys can dance and I really wanted to try it out.

“Harlan Rust was playing the lead man at the time. I actually played the male lead in Giselle last year. It’s quite funny really how it’s gone in a loop.”

Berwyn dances with Mid Wales Dance Academy who are presenting their annual showcase at Theatr Brycheiniog on July 14 and 15. The school, which is based in Brecon, has 300 pupils learning a variety of dance styles.

The show this year is entitled ‘An A-Z of Dance’ and is a journey through the alphabet, featuring boys and girls aged from four to 18. There will be 26 numbers featuring styles such as classical ballet, tap, modern, hip-hop and character dance.

Other MWDA students who are going on to great things this year are Sian Evans, who has been offered a place at King’s International Ballet Academy in Leicestershire, and Lucy Childs, who has a place at the Hammond School in Chester, where she will undertake a degree course in Musical theatre. Lucy recently played the lead role of Princess Jasmiine in the Westender’s production of Aladdin, while Sian was the female lead opposite Berwyn in last year’s MWDA adaptation of ‘Giselle’.

Meanwhile, Berwyn who will begin at Rambert in September is one of only eight male dancers to be accepted into the school which has a roll of 100 students for the next academic year.