A Bermudian with a passion for ballet will feature in a new BBC series this month, which follows young performers as they balance intense professional training with everyday school life.

Vidya Cannonier-Watson appears in several episodes of Stage Stars, taking viewers inside Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, Britain, her former school.

Ms Cannonier-Watson appears in several episodes of the series, filmed at the beginning of 2024, while she attended Tring Park.

She said the show included her work alongside children with disabilities.

“I was pulled in for a few interviews as they were interested in using me as a character,” she added

“It also happens that I was doing this amazing opportunity with the youth dancers with disabilities.

“They wanted to highlight that on the show.”

She recalled that the manager of the dance company ICandance, based in London, had contacted Ting Park School for a collaboration.

ICandance empowers disabled young people through dance and performance.

“They got in touch with our school and wanted to make a collaboration of our dancers with their dancers,” Ms Watson-Cannonier said.

“We just met with them, created a piece and became really good friends with them — they were all really lovely.

“It’s really sweet people who love to dance.”

In the BBC series, produced by Drummer Television, Ms Watson-Cannonier performs her ballet routines and gives her views on the collaboration with the children from ICandance.

Tring Park has a strong track record of success, with alumni including Dame Julie Andrews, Lily James, Daisy Ridley and Thandiwe Newton.

Ms Cannonier-Watson, who is in her final year at the English National Ballet School, felt excited to be a part of the new BBC production.

“I was incredibly honoured to be asked to be on it in the first place but I think it’s good that I show people like me doing things on the big screen,” she said.

The 18-year-old said although she had been training as a professional dancer since she was 11. She has been dancing since she was 3.

She did not know if her friends knew she was in the series but was sure they would find out.

The young dancer thanked her parents for supporting her and her brother, also a ballet dancer.

She said: “I thank them a lot for putting so much effort into being able to send me and my brother to school.

“I always like to think that it is my journey as a dancer and not trying to fit into someone else’s mould but my mom influences me a lot.”

Ms Cannonier-Watson and her brother, Ravi, 21, would return to the island as often as possible to teach young dancers.

Her mother, Sophia Cannonier-Watson, told of her pride in her daughter’s achievements.

She said her son had enjoyed a “trajectory of success” but she was happy to see her daughter forging ahead in the field.

“We are very relieved that she is now starting to feel the production of her efforts,” she said.

Ms Cannonier noted Vidya was “really lovely on film, very confident”.

She said Jakob Wheway Hughes, her daughter’s schoolmate and dance partner, was also featured in the first episode of the BBC series.

“I’m immensely proud, very relieved because I’m a ballerina and I know how difficult it was,” she said of her daughter.

“I know as a woman of colour how difficult it is to dance professionally in the dance world and how difficult it was.”

She added: “I feel this is Vidya’s time. I feel this is about time to see dancers of colour featured thriving and we need more support from Bermuda to recognise that dance is not just a hobby.

“There are so many beautiful, talented eight, nine, ten year-olds who could track for a first career in dance and still get their degree in anything else they want.”

Michael Watson said he was proud of Vidya and “ecstatic” about his daughter’s achievement.

He added: “A lot of people don’t realise the sweat and the effort that goes into creating the art — this is really great to be seen like this.”

Vidya Cannonier-Watson had been a repeat recipient of National Dance Foundation of Bermuda Awards since she left the island for school in Britain aged 11.

In August she received the Catherine Zeta-Jones Scholarship, valued at $15,000.

The award was presented in honour of the late Patricia Calnan, a founding member of the Bermuda Ballet Association.

She is a recipient of the Peter Leitner Arts Scholarship Award and a Bermuda National Arts Council awardee.

The family thanked Dancing Under the Stars and Rosewood Bermuda, the dancer’s corporate sponsor.