He dances like Fred Astaire and sings like Frank Sinatra, and now young Bradley Judge has landed a place at one of the country's top ballet schools.

Bradley, 13, has been accepted by the Yorkshire Young Dancers, run by Northern Ballet Theatre and Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

The West Morton teenager, who has been dancing since he was four, is one of 13 youngsters offered a place on the scheme.

They were chosen following outreach work in schools across the region carried out by the Leeds-based Northern Ballet Theatre to find talented children.

The scheme's high-quality dance training gives youngsters the skills to further professional dance training.

It is split into two strands - ballet and contemporary dance - and at the end of the year the students give a performance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Once he got through the initial auditions, Bradley faced an intensive week to see how the youngsters would cope with the demands of rigorous training.

"Brad has done so well to get in, we're very proud of him," said his mum Laura. "Everyone is calling him Billy Elliot - much to his embarrassment!

"He's been dancing almost as long as he's been walking. He does ballet, tap and contemporary dance at the Wilson Centre in Shipley and has been in shows and pantos most of his life.

"He also loves singing and acting. He recently won the Most Promising award at Bingley Grammar School's Young Musician of the Year contest. He sang like Frank Sinatra."

Bradley was a Sunbeam in the 2004/2005 Alhambra pantomime, Dick Whittington, along with his sister Chloe. The youngsters donated all their payment to the South Asian tsunami relief fund.

Laura said: "Paul Usher, who was in Brookside and The Bill, was in the panto and was very impressed with Bradley. He wrote to him saying he'd follow his performing career with interest."

Bradley started at the Northern Ballet Theatre yesterday with classes four nights a week and Saturdays.

Laura added: "It will be great experience for him. He wants to be a musical theatre actor when he grows up so to have the chance to perform in Northern Ballet Theatre productions at such a young age is fantastic."

It seems Bradley has caught the showbiz bug from his mum. Laura is an actress and singer who recently appeared in Kay Mellor's BBC1 drama The Chase, filmed in Otley. She is in a drama called Dead Clever, with former Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones, on ITV this autumn, and she starred in Idle and Thackley Theatre Group's production Calamity Jane this year.

"I'm also in a series called Housewife 49 written by and starring Victoria Wood," said Laura.

"It's a wartime drama going out as part of ITV's autumn schedule. I got to wear some great 1940s outfits."

e-mail: emma.clayton@bradford.newsquest.co.uk