Dancing her way to Disney dream
Shavaun Tohill eats, sleeps and breathes dance, and this school holidays it will take her to Disneyland.
The Horowhenua 14-year-old has been dancing for 11 years, and is dedicated to building her life around her passion for performing.
This holidays the Waiopehu College pupil joins a group of young dancers from Manawatu who will travel to Los Angeles, to tour dance studios, audition for dance troupes, take part in workshops, and perform on stage at Disneyland.
The Disneyland visit includes an audition where Shavaun will perform a solo, with the hope she could win a permanent place on the Disneyland dance crew.
Despite her obvious excitement, she is grounded about the challenges ahead, and determined.
‘‘It’s a really cut-throat type of job.
‘‘You’re going to be said ‘no’ to all the time, you’re not going to get in all the time, it’s going to be really hard to get a job.
‘‘But I enjoy it, and I’m going to try my hardest.
‘‘It wouldn’t even really matter what type – I’d love just to dance my whole life.’’
Much of Shavaun’s week is planned around classes in ballet, jazz and contemporary dance.
Outside of classes she does hip hop, practises, competes in competitions, and choreographs many of her own competition routines, as well as some for her two younger sisters.
She studies at the Catherine Inger School of Dance in Levin.
‘‘I love all the dances I do – the different genres.
‘‘With ballet, I like that it’s good for technique; with contemporary, I get to feel emotions and do the dance; hip hop is more out there.’’
Shavaun has been competing since 7 years old, and does ‘‘really well’’ in the competitions.
This year her time has been taken up with fundraising for her trip, but last year she won about 30 first place trophies at North Island competitions.
In January she competed at the Gold Coast final of the Showcase Dance Championships, and won gold in almost all of her seven dances.
‘‘I like dancing because I’m not me when I’m on stage. I can be that character and feel the music.’’
Choreography is a special expression of her love for dance.
‘‘I like listening to the music and hearing what the singer’s talking about, then I put it my way, and try to tell a story.’’
Shavaun is thankful to have had strong support and encouragement from her friends and family.
With them behind her, she is keen to see how far her journey can take her on the stage.
‘‘I’ve been doing it for all my life.
‘‘It’s part of me now, I never want to stop.’’