English National Ballet at the Coliseum

The world-famous doll is seen dancing The Nutcracker in the computer-animated film.

Mattel said the �85,000 sponsorship deal, due to be officially announced on Tuesday, was designed to encourage young girls to become more interested in ballet.

'Great opportunity'

Sarah Allen, a spokeswoman for Mattel, said: "Ballet is still the classic play pattern for little girls and most little girls have been to ballet lessons.

"This is a great opportunity for us to open up the world of ballet to little girls, and for them to see ballet first hand.

"The Barbie movie has a wonderful performance of The Nutcracker and hopefully it will inspire girls to see live ballet."

A new range of ballet Barbie dolls are set to be released in the Autumn, with male doll Ken being dressed as one of the soldiers from the production.

Mattel also approached The Royal Ballet, based in Covent Garden, with a sponsorship deal but the company declined to follow up initial negotiations, according to the Press Association.

The English National Ballet has staged The Nutcracker for the past 50 years.

The Barbie brand is estimated to be worth more than �1 billion and Mattel say each second two Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world.

Recently Mattel lost a court case to try and prevent an America artist using images of Barbie dolls in his work.