Teacher Rhian is off to the Olympics (From Worcester News)

Teacher Rhian is off to the Olympics

7:50am Monday 6th February 2012 in Local

A TALENTED dancer from Malvern has been named as a performer at the Olympics opening ceremony.

Rhian Barker, who teaches PE, dance and drama at Dyson Perrins CE Academy, auditioned for a role as a volunteer performer in November and December and will now dance in front of an audience of billions on Friday, July 27.

She has taken dance classes since she was two.

Rehearsals for the grand occasion begin in mid-April.

Miss Barker said a lot of the details surrounding the contents of the ceremony were still top secret, which was only adding to the growing sense of excitement.

She said: “It’s all top secret but I know it is going to be massive and spectacular.

“I’m really excited to go and find out what’s actually going on. I’m very nervous about the thought that there’s going to be billions of people watching on TV. It’s such an amazing opportunity and who knows what it could lead to. It’s just a fantastic thing to do and something to tell your grandkids.”

“My GCSE and A-level students said, ‘Wow, that’s amazing’. I have had kids that I don’t even teach coming up to me and that’s really nice. It means people are talking about it at school.”

The ceremony, known as the Isles of Wonder, has been inspired by William Shakespeare’s the Tempest and will feature 15,000 performers before a capacity crowd of 80,000 people in the Olympic stadium and television viewers worldwide.

The £27 million curtain-raiser will be put together by artistic director Danny Boyle, who is best known for directing Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting.