Young dancers living their ballet dream
The idea of being a professional dancer with New Zealand’s premier ballet company is enough to make four Palmerston North dancers gush with excitement.
Twenty-two children in Palmerston North have lived out their dream and danced on stage with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in
Sleeping Beauty at The Regent on Broadway on Thursday.
City dance studios put forward a group of children who fitted the height and grade requirements, who auditioned to dance on stage.
Danceworks students Chloe Bethwaite, 10, Malaya Hinks, 10, and Isla Cabuay, 9, were cast as pagegirls and Amelia Simpson, 13, was a small lilac fairy.
It was Chloe and Isla’s first time performing with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Malaya’s second, and Amelia’s fourth.
Amelia said it was nerve-wracking because she didn’t want to mess up, but once she went on stage in front of the lights her nerves disappeared.
She said it was sad to come offstage, but she felt proud of herself.
The whole experience was ‘‘really cool’’ and Amelia was pleased to have obtained the part she wanted, with a pretty costume.
She said the three-hour show was tiring, but luckily performers had lots of breaks between appearances.
Her favourite part was when a bunch of confetti rained on to the stage at the end of the show.
The girls started practising after auditions, then had three Sundays and all of Wednesday in training, before the curtain came up on Thursday.
Amelia liked working with the professional dancers and enjoyed a change in choreography.
‘‘It was cool because I look up to most of them.’’
Malaya liked that there were lots of ballerinas in the cast, and she was sad she wasn’t able to watch and enjoy the show.
She said her favourite part was meeting and seeing all the professional dancers prepare.
Danceworks director Marika Harvey said she was proud of the girls and was thrilled so many of them made it to the stage. ‘‘It’s fantastic to see the little ones get the chance to do that.’’
She said it was so important that young children had the chance to dance with the ballet company. ‘‘It’s what they aspire to be.’’ Royal New Zealand Ballet artistic director Patricia Barker said the future of the organisation was the wonderful dancers on the stage. ‘‘We know that future is bright.’’
The other children came from Maximum Dance Zone, Masterclass Dance Studios, The Rose Academy, Maureen Ax School of Dance, Dance Unlimited, Whanganui Ballet and Dance Academy, Michelle Glover Academy of Dance and Alison’s Studio of Dance.