Ten-year-old dancer's big screen debut goes global

Tristan Hayden, from Tilgate, has secured a role in a Royal Opera House performance which will be broadcast live around the world and shown at Cineworld Crawley tonight (Wednesday October 16) at 7.15pm.

Tristan was excited to know his family in Canada would get to see him perform Don Quixote with the Royal Ballet Company in Covent Garden.

He said: “I’m nervous and excited. It’s been really exciting at rehearsals with the Royal Ballet Company, even though I missed my Year Six PGL trip as I had to rehearse.”

The Milton Mount pupil will star with internationally acclaimed ballet dancers Carlos Acosta and Marianela Nunez.

Tristan added: “I was very excited to meet Carlos and am so happy that he has chosen me to perform at the Gala and the worldwide Live Broadcast.

“I’m really proud of myself. The biggest things I have done before are probably Crawley pantos like in Snow White I was a Seven Dwarf and in Peter Pan I was a Lost Boy and now I’m in Cinderella this Christmas.”

Tristan takes dance classes six days a week covering every discipline including Modern, Tap, Greek, Irish and Musical Theatre. And he even trains every Saturday in the Junior Associate Programme at the Royal Ballet School in London.

Tristan’s mother Michelle Jarrett, 43, said Tristan had been dancing ‘ pretty much since he started walking’ and started ballet lessons when he was just three-years-old.

She said: “I started him with ballet lessons at K2 and realised he needed to progress from there and sent him to Roshe Performing Arts in Crawley and he’s progressed from there.

“It makes me extremely proud. I went and saw the concert last Saturday. It’s such a fantastic venue, it’s absolutely amazing and you think there’s my little 10-year-old!

“It’s amazing and to know it’s going to be shown world wide is even better.

“I don’t know where he gets his motivation. I did a term of ballet and that was it.”

Tristan can be seen on stage for most of the first act of the performance when he plays a street boy.

He then returns to the stage as an altar boy for part of the third act

Roshe Performing Arts principal, Rosemary Woodd said; ‘Tristan is very talented, works very hard and is very dedicated for 10 years old.

“He follows a special programme of training that Roshe have successfully been teaching for 60 years and his talent, like with many present and past pupils, has been nurtured over time by a team of dedicated dance professionals.”