BRIDPORT dancer George Chantler will perform with the English Youth Ballet - despite being one of the youngest to audition.

The talented eight-year-old will appear in the ballet's forthcoming production of Sleeping Beauty.

George competed against hundreds of hopefuls in a nerve-racking audition. He will be rehearsing in Somerset in preparation for three performances at Yeovil's Octagon Theatre in June.

George started his dancing career at the Bernard Gale School of Dancing when he was four.

Mum Katie said: "We were watching the ballet that Christmas and there were all these men leaping around the stage and George said he wanted to do that.

"Then one of his friends at St Catherine's School started going to Bernard Gale and he went with her."

Mrs Chantler said George coped with the audition really well and is off for another one in a couple of weeks in Bristol for the Royal Ballet School's associate teaching prgramme.

She said: "The audition was quite nerve-racking - it was a big stage and there were hundreds of other people there. The one he is going to in a couple of weeks is very competitive but sometimes just going to the audition itself is very good experience."

George now trains at the Dorchester Ballet and Dance Club.