At the age of 12, Brittany Hope Tooms-Peel has achieved what many performers spend a lifetime dreaming about.

She has a part in a major West End production.

Brittany, from Hartlip, a student at Chatham Grammar School for Girls, has landed the role of Margaret Gormley, a ballet girl in the musical Billy Elliot.

Now she travels to London five days each week for intensive rehearsals. She takes over the role in June and will remain in the cast until December.

“She’s absolutely thrilled,” said Brittany’s mother Amanda Tooms, who runs the Footsies Dance Centre in Chatham.

“It’s a speaking part and she’s very excited to be working in the West End with professional producers and choreographers.”

Brittany, who began dancing at the age of two-and-a-half, is following in the footsteps of her mother. Amanda performed in the smash hit 42nd Street before setting up Footsies in 1992.

Another of her pupils, Paige Varrall, went into the show last year, and has been offered a further contract to remain with the cast until December this year.

“Brittany is delighted to be joining her classmate,” said Amanda. “For any dancer to achieve a West End contract is an honour. But for two 12-year-olds to achieve it shows real talent and commitment.

“It’s fantastic for a small school like ours to achieve such success, which you normally associate with the big London stage schools.”

Brittany came to the Billy Elliot production team’s notice last year, when she first auditioned for the show. Her talent is marked out by the fact that she is Kent Junior Ballet Champion and Kent Junior Modern Dance Champion.

“She’s worked hard,” said Amanda. “And now it seems all that effort has paid off.”