Diane Parkes talks to a budding young ballet dancer who is aiming for the top.

Every week little Thomas Edwards would peer through the glass and watch his two sisters in their ballet lessons. So when the teacher suggested he join the class, he thought he may as well give it a go.

At the time Thomas was just under three years old but that decision went on to change his life as the Worcester teenager is now a full time student at one of the UK’s most prestigious ballet schools and is aiming for the top.

Thomas, now aged 16, took his first steps with Harlequin Stage School in his home city and has been an ardent ballet fan ever since.

And he still remembers those first lessons.

“I used to be dragged along to go and wait for my sisters and I was standing outside when the principal invited me to take part,” he recalls. “And so I joined the classes and the principal then told my mum to get me some ballet shoes.”

And when his sisters, his twin Amy and older sister Emily, now 19, hung up their pointe shoes, Thomas carried on dancing.

“I was the only boy in the class for about 14 years,” he says. “Just when I left another three boys started but up until then I had been the only one. It was good as it meant I always got the good lead roles for the duets but it would also have been good for there to be other boys.”

Thomas continued with Harlequin and was also a member of the Worcestershire-based Midland Musical Theatre Group. His dance commitments kept him busy.

“I used to do swimming, football and dance but the dance gradually took over,” he says. “I danced every day apart from Tuesdays and Sundays and that would be for two or three hours each night. Then if we had festivals we would also be practising on Sundays.

“We would do summer schools and put a big show on at the end of the summer. And we did a lot of competitions.”

So much of his youngest years were spent dancing that Thomas now has folders and folders of certificates and photographs of him appearing in countless guises.

And he also stepped out on the professional stage.

“I was in a panto at the Swan Theatre in Worcester when I was Michael in Peter Pan,” he says. “And I also appeared in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker as one of the children when I was about seven. It was great to see how everything goes on behind stage and everyone was so nice to us.”