Sophie Rebecca is the first to admit that she does not have the physique of a conventional ballerina. Her broad shoulders and muscular arms would make her a challenge for most dance partners to lift, but none of this prevents her from being accepted for a course overseen by the Royal Academy of Dance.

Nor does the fact that she was born a man.

The IT worker from North Yorkshire is the first openly transgender dance student for the academy, which decided in 2013 to abandon its insistence that only people born as women should be permitted to take its female dance courses. The dance school, which was founded 95 years ago and is led by Darcey Bussell, also has its first male student who