WESLEY Pritchard has a spring in his step - and he's hoping to make a career out of it.
For the 20-year-old, of Maesglas, Newport, has scooped a coveted place with the prestigious London School of Contemporary Dance.
Wesley is one of the happy few - only 20 dancers are selected from 200 applicants - to have been accepted in the London school this year.
Now the former Colleg Gwent student is packing up, ready to swap the bright-ish lights of Newport for the glare of the footlights and a new home in London.
He said: "I am feeling very excited about the challenge. I'm not scared about branching out on my own."
Perhaps knowing that he will share his flat with three other dancers is a comfort.
"One is Australian and the other two are French - a chance to improve my French maybe?" he said.
The course at the London School of Contemporary Dance is very demanding - students train every day - but Wesley is up for the gruelling schedule.
"I have been training very hard for the past three years and I am used to very long training days," he said.
Classes start at 8.15am and dancers don't leave before 6 or 7pm - and there's no such thing as a week off.
In addition to classical and contemporary dancing classes, Wesley will be taking dance-related subjects, like anatomy, biology and physiotherapy during the three-year course.
At the end of it, he should emerge as a fully-qualified, professional dancer - a goal he has focused on ever since he discovered dancing in a drama class.
"We had to do some movement performance and my teacher noticed that I was pretty good at it. So I decided to take dancing class after that."
Wesley, who studied at the Cross Keys campus, graduated in Performing Art in 2001 and the following year he won a National Award in Dancing.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article