ROSSENDALE teenager Lianne Tattersall is due to perform in front of a billion people tonight as she helps launch the Commonwealth Games.

The 18-year-old former Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School student will dance in front of the massive TV audience who will tune into the long-awaited opening ceremony from across the globe.

Lianne won her place in the dance troupe after succeeding in an audition of more than 100 hopefuls.

But although she likes the routine she will be performing to music played by the Weapons of Sound Band, who play a variety of instruments including kitchen sinks, she hates the outfit!

She said: "We have to wear lime green jeans, a brown top and a pink top around the waist. It's horrible!"

Lianne, of Brandwood Park, took part in the dress rehearsal on Tuesday at the stadium in front of an audience of 10,000.

She said: "My mum Anne and sister Shelley, 20, went down to the stadium to watch and I didn't put a foot wrong.

"Tonight will be even better when the cameras are rolling. I am a bit nervous and I got really excited when we came off stage on Tuesday. The choreographer said it went really well and everyone seemed to like it."

Lianne teaches at Rossendale Dance and Drama Studio in Waterfoot and has been a pupil of Alison Marlow for the past 10 years.

Last year she was a finalist in the UK National Scholarship for ballet, tap and modern. She said: "Alison put me forward because you had to be 18 and I was the only one old enough.

"At the audition, we were taught a dance routine and then had to perform it all together and then in groups.

"They said we would be told in a month if we had a place and so when I got a letter the next weekend I thought I had been unsuccessful. But I was really shocked to get a place."

Lianne's ambition is to entertain on cruise ships, but she has to be 21 before she can apply and so is looking for jobs in the meantime and going for auditions.