A DANCE teacher will showcase her talents in front of a worldwide audience after being picked to perform at the Olympic Games next year.

Michelle Harkes, 44, has been selected to perform in the opening or closing ceremony of the 2012 games. She could even be chosen for both!

After an audition process lasting almost a year she got the good news earlier this week, just a day after her last try-out.

Michelle, of Lower Dunton Road, Laindon, will go back to a final later this month when she’ll be cast in her a role in the ceremonies, which will be televised across the globe.

She said: “I’m apprehensive until after I go back and find out exactly what I’ll be doing. I’m always one of those people who likes to keep calm about something until it happens.

“I’m getting really excited.”

Ms Harkes was nominated by Chelmsford Council after performing at their festival of dance earlier this year.

She said: “They said they were going to put me forward for various grants but I wasn’t expecting it when they called and said they had put me forward for the Olympics.”

Michelle has a background in ballet, but recently started her own dance school in Basildon and Chelmsford, where she also takes Zumba classes.

She said: “I went and did their audition which was a bit of dancing, drama and all sorts, a bit of everything.

“I said I did Zumba and they asked me if I could go en pointe, which I could because I started out in ballet.

“That was Saturday and by Sunday evening I’d got an e-mail saying congratulations and to go back on November 26, to be cast for a specific role. It could be for the opening or closing ceremonies or both. I won’t have any idea until I go back. ”