A DANCER from Bicester is set to take to the stage at Covent Garden after securing a role in opera Anna Nicole.

Leanne Blossom, 20, is already in rehearsals for the London show, which opens in February at the Royal Opera House.

The opera is about the life of Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, her marriage to octogenarian billionaire oil tycoon J Howard Marshall and tragic death in 2007 aged 39.

Former Cooper School pupil Miss Blossom, whose family lives in Fair Close, Bicester, will be one of just six dancers in the show.

She said: “It’s my first professional job. My agent sent three of us for an audition. I was the only one to get a part.

“I’m really pleased as I didn’t get many parts while I was at college, so it was quite nice to get this.”

Miss Blossom said she had also taken up singing since she started studying at Urdang Academy, in London, in 2008, and it had become a passion.

She has got her sights on a part in a musical such as Hairspray.

Asked what advice she would give to any to any budding performers, she said: ”You have to work really hard if you really want to do it. There are so many talented people out there, to be good isn't enough — you have to really want it and put in the extra work.

“Remember, don’t be defeated because someone sitting next to you is better, as the person watching you might like you better.”

Miss Blossom’s grandmother, Jeannette Upton, of Longfields, Bicester, plans to book tickets for the show.

She said: “We are thrilled to bits for her and just so proud of her.

“It’s something she has always wanted and she worked so hard to get there.

“From the time she started dancing, all she wanted to do was go on stage.

“Since she’s been at college, she’s never missed a day, she’s just so dedicated.”

Miss Blossom studied performing arts at Abingdon and Witney College, and in 2008 was student of the year in the department. From a young age she learned gymnastics in a group at Bicester leisure centre run by her grandmother. She took up dance when 12 and had lessons with Jam, at Southwold School, and later sessions at the Courtyard, in Launton Road, and Dance Connexions in Wallingford.