A-Level student Heather Oakes (pictured front left) took on the role of Principal Dancer and Assistant Choreographer in the production of West Side Story, at the Royal Northern College of Music.

For Heather, who is a member of the Cardwell Theatre School in Altrincham, the West Side Story stint is just the latest of a number of stage roles.

In the past she has performed in an English Youth Ballet production of The Nutcracker and she has appeared in a professional production of the Wizard of Oz.

Last year she went on a five-week placement with the Atlanta State Ballet’s Dance Education Summer Intensive Program. She regularly juggles her rehearsals with her academic studies in Chemistry, English Literature and Mathematics and she still hasn’t decided whether she would like to pursue a professional career on the stage.

Heather added: “I plan to go to Auburn University in Alabama to study Chemical Engineering. Performing is such an unsteady lifestyle I don’t know if I would be able to do it – but I am thinking about it. Hopefully after university I will have figured out what to do.”