Jemima pirouettes to ballet stardom in NZ
As a young girl, Jemima Scott entered a world of tutus and pirouettes. She never left.
The 17-year-old has been practising ballet every day since before she even started school, and now her dedication is paying off.
She has just won a prestigious ballet competition, come second in another, and is about to join a tour with the Royal New Zealand Ballet on an internship, performing The Nutcracker in two main centres.
‘‘Basically, the internship is like a ‘taste’ of life in Royal New Zealand Ballet,’’ her mum Sara Scott said.
In October, Jemima won the PACANZ National Young Performer ballet competition, one of eight Young Performer awards up for grabs in the national performing arts competition.
Jemima pirouetted her way to the title, dancing against 12 other top ballerinas from around the country.
The awards, held every two years, took place in Palmerston North.
Jemima began her ballet training under the guidance of ballet teacher Paula Hunt, a key figure in New Zealand’s ballet scene. She made a splash early.
At age 12, she was accepted into the Australian Ballet School’s development programme, alongside just two other New Zealand dancers.
As a teenager, Jemima moved up to Auckland for a year, to open up opportunities in the ballet world.
She started training at the Mount Eden Ballet Academy, in its Future Dancers course.
Alongside 30 other dancers in the course, Jemima said the move to Auckland would help her get as much competition as possible, to help her hone her skills.
Despite her success, Jemima was still nervous about whether she’d have a career in dancing, saying she was ‘‘not sure’’ whether she would make it into the RNZB.
‘‘I still have to do as much as I can for them [RNZB] to see me.’’
Sara was confident, saying it was a question of when, rather than if, she would join.
Jemima was off to a good start, as her internship with the RNZB would see her perform in front of crowds in Auckland and Christchurch for The Nutcracker.
She also recently came second in the Sir John Logan Campbell Ballet Trust award, another prestigious competition.