The talented youngster trains after school and at weekends and recently performed with the London Children's Ballet at the Peacock Theatre. ZoêŠ Briance, who works with the company, told the Guardian that Henry "brings a lot of soul into his dancing, a passion that many children don't have at that stage. He seems to have a natural understanding of character and brings things to roles that people of that age often can't: he is performing emotions that he will not yet have experienced."

Henry's mother launched an appeal to raise the Ô£50,000 necessary to send him to the Bolshoi school for four years. She told the paper her son became interested in ballet at age five and begged for lessons. His interested in Russian ballet was piqued after she bought him a video of Kirov star Rudolf Nureyev.

The Bolshoi was founded in 1776. It has recently suffered artistic and financial instability, although the company has recovered somewhat under the leadership of Alexei Ratmansky, previously a principal at the Danish Royal Ballet, who was appointed artistic director in 2004.