Less than two years ago my son Eli asked to start ballet lessons. Of course we weren’t going to say no, but it did come as a bit of a surprise.

We were so lucky that we found the best ballet school we could find was just 20 minutes away in Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. The Mandy and Shirley Morris School of Dance have been the best thing to happen to Eli and their hard work, support and teaching has really paid off.

Within 12 months he was accepted by the Royal Ballet School’s Associate programme and just a couple of months ago we found out that, after many levels of auditions and tests and interviews, that he’s been accepted to White Lodge, The Royal Ballet school’s residential school. He was one of only 12 chosen out of more than 800 auditioned.

So in September he’ll be moving away to London. It’s broken our hearts although we’re equally proud and supportive. To celebrate the news, back in March, I visited a lesson and took some photos of Eli in his class alone, with classmates and also with his inspiration and teacher Miss Sam.