When Barnaby Meredith told his mum and dad he wanted to be a professional ballet dancer, he got a blunt response.

"We'll take you to rugby training," they told him.

With that, seven-year-old Barnaby was dragged away from his Wibsey home for a couple of hours of rough and tumble on the rugby field.

But their plan didn't work.

A decade later, their 17-year-old son, pictured, is about to star in his third adult role for the world-famous Royal Ballet Company.

Barnaby, who has spent the last six years at London's prestigious Royal Ballet School, even counts the Queen and Prince Philip among his fans after dancing for them at a private engagement last summer.

The 6ft 2ins tall teenager is Bradford's very own Billy Elliott - and no-one could be more pleased than his parents.

"I'm immensely proud," said mum Sue Meredith today. "I didn't want him to do it, but the Royal Ballet chased after him since he was nine and they really wanted him.

"We have no regrets now. I was worried about him at first but he coped very well. I am not surprised he's done so well because it is his goal and he has wanted to do it since he was two."

Barnaby is now juggling the demands of the Royal Ballet's production of Manon and his A-level studies.

"At the moment it is very difficult because I have got so much on and it is non-stop work from nine in the morning until 6.30 at night," he said.

"We don't get much time at all for revision, we just get two hours of academic study in the morning and then it is a case of grabbing any spare minute we can."

But he said the chance of dancing alongside the world's leading ballet stars was something he could not refuse.

"It is very exciting," he said. "It has gone very well and I have been very lucky because I never imagined to be performing these kind of roles so young," he said. "It is hard work, but very exciting to be performing with the very top dancers that I have always looked up to."

His parents, who have recently moved to York, admitted that it came as a shock when Barnaby announced his dream of becoming a dancer when he was only two-years-old.

"We haven't really got any family history in dance or drama," said Mrs Meredith. "My daughter did a bit of ballet when she was young, but that was it. Then one day, Barnaby announced he wanted to be a dancer.

"We did our best to talk him out of it and it was awful at the time. He got called all sorts of things at school and it took my husband a long time to get over it. But he was determined that was what he wanted to do."

Barnaby earned rave reviews during spells at the Bradford Dance and Theatre Arts School and Stage 84, as well as notching up a string of credits in television, film and theatre roles.

But his big break came at the age of nine, when he was invited to join the prestigious Royal Ballet School.

"We got a call asking if he would like to become join, but I refused," said Mrs Meredith. "I thought it was too far to go when he was young. It is also very expensive and money was tight at the time. It felt as though I would be losing my son."

But Barnaby refused to give in, and eventually persuaded his mum when he was 11.

Despite missing the first audition for the prestigious school, he was immediately offered a place, and the family secured funding from Royal Ballet grants and Bradford Council.

Barnaby's next senior role will be in the Royal Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty.

And, as they sit in the audience at the Royal Opera House, mum and dad will be as relieved as anyone that he chose the stage instead of the rugby field