Meet Edinburgh's real Billy Elliot

As well as his love of football and rugby, an 11-year-old northern schoolboy discovers a passion for ballet. With the odds piled against him, his natural talent shines through and he wins a place at the prestigious Royal Ballet School in London.

Except this time, the story is based in Edinburgh and it’s for real.

In a first for the city, Calum Lowden, one of a number of male pupils at Edinburgh’s Manor School of Ballet, has been chosen from thousands of UK wannabes to fill a coveted place as a Mid Associate at the world-renowned Covent Garden school.

From September, Calum will travel to the British capital twice a month to be taught by some of the world’s most famous dancers - with the prospect of fulfilling his dream of one day becoming a fully-fledged member of the Royal Ballet Company.

The energetic primary school pupil, from Oxton in the Borders, first fell in love with dance at the age of five when he saw Michael Flatley in Riverdance.

Proud mum Jacquie, 49, said today: "He just loved it and kept going on at us that he wanted to go to dance classes. We eventually found him a tap class. It all just went from there and he did some ballet and decided he liked doing that more than anything else.

"He’s quite sporty and plays for the local football team and is captain of the rugby team, but I don’t think he’ll be doing any contact rugby when he goes to high school. I don’t think the ballet school would be too happy with that."

Teachers at the Manor School and dance instructors at Scottish Ballet, where Calum has been training for the past year, were so confident of his abilities, they encouraged the youngster to audition for London.

Mrs Lowden added: "We couldn’t believe it when he got in, his dad and I were so proud of him. I think he would like to go full-time when he is 16.

"To see him on stage really brings a tear to your eye. We love going to watch him. He has got such a presence and can be so regal and quite demure on stage and then he comes off and acts his age, dancing around, being cheeky and out playing football."

Calum, a Hearts fan, now has his sights firmly set on one day touring the world with the Royal Ballet Company or even the Juliard School of Ballet in New York.

He has appeared in productions of Babe at the Festival Theatre, the opera Turandot at the Playhouse and the Children’s Classic Concerts in the Usher Hall and Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.

The Channel Kirk school pupil, who is also learning to play the piano and guitar, said: "I just thought ballet was more interesting than doing sports.

"Once you get higher up it gets more difficult and you’ve got to be much stronger when it gets more difficult to balance and I really like the challenge of trying to do that.

"I’m really happy to be going to the Royal Ballet School. My best friends are right behind me and come and see me perform."

Director of the Manor School of Ballet in Manor Place, Nol Platfoot, said it was the first time a boy had been chosen for the London school in its 33-year history.

The school, which has a roll of 1600 pupils who attend after-school classes, teaches girls and boys from toddlers to teens, giving them valuable experience and confidence.

Mrs Platfoot said: "It is exactly like a real-life Billy Elliot. We have never had a pupil who has done this before and I’m almost certain there hasn’t been anyone in Edinburgh who has done this before.

"The Royal Ballet School has obviously seen the talent and are prepared to take him on."