£ ME and my MONEY

AMERICAN ballet dancer Eric Underwood has had an extraordinary past 15 years. He has gone from earning $4 (£2.60) an hour as a waiter in New York to dancing on stage with Beyoncé, dressing in Alexander McQueen designer clothes and spending thousands of pounds on impulse holidays at the drop of a hat.

Yet 31-year-old Underwood, a soloist at The Royal Ballet, believes his best financial years are yet to come. He tries to be careful with his money, putting as much aside for the future as he can.

He began training at the age of 14 with his local ballet teacher in Washington DC. At the end of his first year, he started at the School of American Ballet, later winning the school’s Philip Morris Foundation Scholarship.

After attracting critical acclaim for his performances at the American Ballet Theatre, he moved to Britain in 2006 and joined The Royal Ballet as ‘first artist’.

He was promoted to soloist in 2008 and until the beginning of December is starring as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House in London.