SHE loves to dance, but Michaela Guibarra has had to overcome serious health problems to achieve her dream.

Three years ago, she was forced to shelve her ballet training and put her goal of becoming a professional dancer on hold while she underwent major surgery – she had three operations on her hips and feet and spent 10 weeks on crutches.

It was a long and rocky road back to fitness, but Michaela, 20, from Witney, is now on top of the world.

She spent July and August in Singapore dancing in Phantom of the Opera and is off to China next month to prepare for 60 more performances of the show in Shanghai in December and January.

She said: “The path to achieving my goal of becoming a professional dancer was very trying at times. It was difficult. I was very down and missed dancing terribly. I felt as though my body was failing me at the age of 17.”

At the start of her second year at Central School of Ballet, she was diagnosed with femoroacetabular impingement in her hips and, after consultations with specialists, MRI scans and steroid injections into the joints, she was given an ultimatum – undergo operations to remove excess bone from both hips or stop dancing altogether.

“There was no question about it. I had to have the operations,” added Michaela.

She took a year off from her course and had the first hip operation in November 2010, and the second two months later.

But she was not out of the woods as the doctors then diagnosed Morton’s neuroma and she had to undergo another operation to remove the thickened nerves and inflamed fluid sacs in both her feet.

Michaela said: “It was during this time that I was more certain than ever that I had to dance and I knew that I would appreciate the ability to dance so much more than before.

“The challenges made me a stronger person and I was able to see dance in a whole new light. I have never veered from my goal of becoming a professional dancer.”

After months of physiotherapy she returned to the Central School of Ballet and began to dance again, and she graduated earlier this year with a BA in professional dance and performance.

After such a nightmarish experience, Michaela was over the moon when she was offered a job with the Phantom of the Opera World Tour.

She said: “The competition for jobs in professional ballet and dance companies is fierce. I felt my chances for this job were slim. The audition process was complex, first involving auditions at the ballet school. Then I was on a shortlist of 12 girls – all auditioning for two places.

“Some of those on the shortlist had previously taken part in the UK tour and the world tour, so I felt they had an advantage, but I got a place on the Singapore tour from July to September. I was absolutely ecstatic – all the effort involved in training and all the physical challenges were all worth it.”

Her family were equally delighted. She is very close to her parents Susan and Neville, brothers Peter, 22, and Theo, 10, and sister Katrina, 18, who is also an aspiring dancer at Bird College in Kent.

Michaela’s boyfriend, Isaac Lee-Baker, is a dancer with Northern Ballet.

She stays in constant touch with all of them via video calls.

Michaela, who went to West Witney Primary School and Wood Green School, learned to dance at the town’s Jill Stew School of Dance, starting at the age of three.

She said: “I remember with great fondness the late Jill Stew. I was a fidgety child who couldn’t keep still, which drove her mad.

“But she saw something in me, a potential which she pushed me to reach and exceed – for this I will be forever grateful.”

Michaela trained every night of the week during her teens, but still managed to achieve 12 GCSEs with good grades. At 11 she was accepted at White Lodge, the Royal Ballet Lower School, but she felt too young to leave her home and family.

However, at 16, she was ready to take up a coveted place at the Central School of Ballet.

She added: “I don’t actually recall ever wanting be anything other than a dancer, so being given the opportunity to focus purely on dance six days a week was thrilling.”

She has numerous top stage productions under her belt, including the Royal Ballet's Cinderella at The Royal Opera House in 2004, The Wizard of Oz at the New Theatre, Oxford, in 2005, and Ellen Kent Opera’s Aida in 2007.

“There is a huge amount of discipline involved,” she said. “There’s constant pressure concerning weight and image, but healthy eating is always encouraged.

“Being fit and healthy is an essential part of being a successful and strong dancer. You couldn’t train as hard as we do – like professional athletes – without proper nutrition.

“It’s a hard life and it often feels as though one has to sacrifice a lot to be successful but the rewards are so beautiful and fulfilling that if it is your passion, as it is mine, it literally does make the blood, sweat and tears worth it.”