Dainty Doreen is Britain’s oldest ballerina at 71

AS a child Doreen Pechey yearned to become a ballet dancer but knew better than to ask her parents for lessons because money was tight.

She never gave up on her dream, however, and is now celebrating becoming the oldest ballerina in Britain – at the age of 71.

The semi-retired electrical engineer, who finally began taking classes ten years ago, is the oldest person to pass the Royal Academy of Dance’s Grade 6 exam, performing a number difficult moves to its exacting standards. She said: ‘I was really pleased as I had worked hard. I was surprised when I was told I was oldest to ever get that far in the exams.’

The academy acknowledged her achievement on its Facebook page.

And Mrs Pechey, of Goringon-Thames, Oxfordshire, has no intention of stopping there. She plans to take her Grade 7 and Grade 8 exams – the final ones – and hopes to soon go en pointe (that’s up on the very tips of her toes, for non-ballet fans).

She said: ‘I’m just en pointe but only on the barre and strictly supervised. All little girls want to go en pointe – just because I’m 71 doesn’t mean I’m not a little girl.’

She says she has dropped from a dress size 20 to 12, to the delight of her husband Bill, 68, and is more flexible than ever, despite having knee replacement surgery two years ago.

Mrs Pechey grew up in Southend and would save up to see the ballet when it came to the town’s theatre.

But she never asked her father, a painter and decorator, for ballet lessons. She said: ‘I knew ballet lessons weren’t the sort of thing people like us could have afforded,’ she said. ‘And it wasn’t just the ballet lessons which were the cost, it was the costumes when you did a performance.’

Now, she has had a barre installed in her kitchen so she can practice at home and trains three times a week with a teacher. At first she attended adult classes but said they were not challenging enough and now trains with a group of teenagers.

Such is her progress that she even performed on stage at Reading’s Hexagon Theatre in a production of Coppelia.

‘Knee surgery two years ago’