A talented Norwich ballet dancer is getting ready to represent the UK in a European competition this weekend.

Fifteen-year-old Lita Garcia, who lives in Witton, near Norwich, is travelling to Antwerp in Belgium to take part in the Genée Dance Challenge, presented by the Royal Academy of Dance, on Sunday. She will compete against dancers from Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands in the competition which is being judged Darcey Bussell, a former principal dancer at the Royal Ballet who is now president of the Royal Academy of Dance. Lita won her place after impressing judges at a competition in Cardiff run by the Royal Academy of Dance, and the winners of Sunday's Genée Dance Challenge will go on to perform at the Genée International Ballet Competition later this month.

Lita, who will perform a neo-classical style solo piece, said she was proud to represent the UK, and both nervous and excited to be taking part. She said she was especially excited her idol Darcey Bussell would be judging the competition.

'She is so much every dancer's dream, everyone would like to be like her. To know she's going to be watching me is amazing,' said Lita, who has been dancing since she was five-years-old and hopes to pursue a career in dance.

The Thorpe St Andrew School pupil studies ballet and contemporary dance with Jacqui Oakley at Oakley School of Dancing in Banham. Last year she successfully auditioned to be a Senior Associate at the Royal Ballet School in London's Covent Garden, and she was also accepted for a second year. She also gained a place with the Young Dancers Academy Associates Programme in London, and in the summer she passed her Royal Academy of Dance advanced foundation exam with a distinction.

Lita's dream role would be The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

• Do you have a Norwich arts story? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk