SIX months after being as The Northern Echo's own Billy Elliot, Theo Close celebrated his 12th birthday while enjoying the excitement of becoming part of Fagin's gang in the musical Oliver! at Darlington Civic Theatre.

Theo, who won a 12-month dance scholarship from this newspaper in November last year, has also become part of a boys- only dance class which has changed the rules at the national chain of drama schools, Stagecoach.

Proud mum, Lorraine Emmerson, said of her son, who attends Carmel Technology College and Stagecoach of Darlington: "He's been at Stagecoach since he was six and, since winning the scholarship, Theo's gone on to appear as John Darling in the pantomime Peter Pan at Durham's Gala Theatre and to audition successfully for Oliver! with Darlington Operatic Society, Tosca (a performance with Opus 1 Opera at Darlington Civic Theatre on Tuesday) and the school play."

Theo was playing the character Harry in Oliver! until tonight.

"He's had such a great time with the operatic society that he's keen to do more shows. To be honest, I'm absolutely delighted because his interest in the stage hasn't interfered with his schoolwork and homework," said Ms Emmerson. She's hoping that Theo will be completing some A levels before trying for stage school.

"If he wants to do a degree in performing arts I'd be far happier than if he went off to stage school at a young age. There were male dancers in their twenties in the Gala Theatre pantomime and it was nice for Theo to discuss dance training with them. He just loves dancing and I'm amazed that he's still doing ballet, acro and dance. When you're six it looks cute, but when you're 12 it's not so cute."

The 'Billy Elliot' interest of boys wanting to dance encouraged head of Stagecoach Darlington, Trudy Hindmarsh, to launch a boys only dance class last year.

"I didn't know if we'd be allowed to do this under the Stagecoach ethos because boys and girls are normally taught together, but we've found that boys are coming from all over the North-East to this class," explained Ms Hindmarsh, who employed a male Russian tutor to show the youngsters that men can have a career in dance.

"Now the founder of Stagecoach, Stephanie Manuel, is launching a class at Walton-on-Thames because she has a grandson who is interested in ballet and this is being considered for classes across the country.

"We originally told the boys that they'd be learning street dance and ballet, but now they say they're enjoying the ballet more," said Ms Hindmarsh.

Oliver! ends on Saturday at Darlington Civic Theatre and is followed by Opus 1 Opera's Tosca on Tuesday. Box Office: 01325-486-555.

Viv Hardwick