Last updated 11:38, Friday, 04 July 2008

TWO young pupils of Branthwaite dance teacher Avril Crellin have achieved national ballet success.

Kirsty Walker has gained a place in the junior associates of the Royal Ballet at the age of seven and Megan Binns, 11, has passed her Royal Academy of dance intermediate examination with merit.

Both girls study with Avril at her Lakeland Studio of Dance and Performing Arts and are the latest in a long line of successes for the school.

Kirsty, of Pardshaw and a pupil at Eaglesfield Paddle School, has been dancing since she was three and her success means that she will have lessons in Manchester every month from Royal Ballet teachers.

Avril said: “It is amazing that a child so young has been chosen. I had to send a letter to explain why I thought she was ready because they will only accept a seven-year-old in exceptional circumstances.”

Megan, of Little Clifton and a pupil at St Bridget’s School in Brigham, took part in the Fonteyn Nureyev Awards earlier this year and has been accepted to join the Yorkshire Ballet seminars in York this summer.