Dancer Alastair makes move for TV crown
A farmer's son turned ballet dancer is to star in a new BBC TV talent search to find Britain's best dancer.
Former Tarleton schoolboy Alastair Postlethwaite, now 28, who won a place at the Royal Ballet School at the age of 11, is a finalist on new primetime BBC1 show, So You Think You Can Dance, which begins on Saturday night.
Alastair, who grew up on Longlands Farm, in Tarleton, and still stays with his parents between jobs, mucked out, herded cattle and worked on the family stall in Chorley Market in between working on his dance moves as a child.
He said: "Half of the family are basically farmers and the other half of the family are mechanics – so I decided to become a ballet dancer! It seemed like the obvious thing to do!"
Now the entire village, along with mum Angela, dad Walter and older brothers Stuart and Andrew are to cram into Merebrow Bowling Club to watch his big moment on the widescreen TV.
It's a far cry from schooldays at Tarleton County Primary when he kept his dancing a secret for fear of being bullied – right until the moment he left for the Royal Ballet.
He said: "No-one knew I did ballet, it was such a big secret when I was at primary school. Everyone was so into their football or rugby, ballet really wasn't something you did.
"But at one of the last assemblies of the year, Mr Hughes, the head, came in and said: 'I've got some fantastic news that Alastair Postlethwaite's just been accepted into the Royal Ballet.'
"All the kids just gasped – and my heart literally stopped!
"But everyone was fantastic about it, all the lads. Everyone was really cool about it."
Alastair began dancing at the age of four by chance – his best friend Matthew O'Rourke went to ballet classes in Hesketh Bank Village Hall so he decided to give it a go himself, and the rest is history.
He has danced with the Scottish Ballet, Adonais, The Curve Foundation and The Royal Opera House and worked with K Ballet, in Japan.
He has danced Don Quixote, Nutcracker, The Prodigal Son, Copplia, and Faade and has just finished a year and a half with the UK tour of Wayne Sleep's Cabaret.
But, at 28, his time in ballet is ending and he hopes the TV show will be a springboard to a new career in musical theatre.
And he impressed judges, Nigel Lythgoe and Arlene Phillips, who put him straight through to the boot camp stage, known as choreography camp.
Alastair said: "My first audition, I got a Golden Ticket which sounds like something off Willy Wonka but you get to go straight through.
"I ran up and shook Nigel Lythgoe's hand and gave Arlene Phillips a kiss!"
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Weather for Preston
Thursday 29 July 2010
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