MEET Noosa's own Billy Elliot.

But be quick, as 16-year-old Ruben Flynn-Kann is heading for Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham, UK next year.

Not that Ruben encountered the class warfare and ribbing the original movie character suffered, being home-schooled in leafy Tinbeerwah -and starting out as a hip hop dancer.

Besides, with fitness now de rigueur among young people, ballet is simply another form of its expression, albeit with much more grace. And Ruben's energy has also made him a good surfer and bike rider.

"My neighbour started doing (hip hop) dancing, and asked if I wanted to try it out,” Ruben said.

"Then my hip hop teacher said 'do you want to try ballet?'.

"I had good pointing feet, so I tried it, and really liked it.”

Since then, Ruben has been developing his skills under the tutelage of Noosa Professional Dance Academy owner Michelle Buckley at Noosaville.

"He's simply a natural,” Michelle said.

Ruben is putting in 20 hours a week on the bar in preparation for the full-time position he's been offered at Elmhurst - a posting he accepted in favour of a similar offer from the Australian Ballet School.

"I wanted to get into ballet school in Europe,” he said.

Ruben's mum Madeleine is understandably proud, and doubly so as Ruben's younger brother is developing along similar lines.

"He has just returned from England where he trained in two summer schools at prestigious English ballet company linked schools, the Royal Ballet Summer School and Elmhurst Ballet School, which is linked with Birmingham Royal Ballet School,” Madeleine said.

"He is ecstatic as this was the aim of his 'tour' to continue training in a ballet company linked school.”