PRIMA ACHIEVER
Angelique Cassillis-Pope is following in the well-choreographed footsteps of her family with her passion for dance
With an Asian Grand Prix win and a high-profile scholarship under her belt, Gold Coast ballerina Angelique Cassillis-Pope is ready to take on the world at just 10 years of age.
IN a tiny Ashmore dance studio little Angelique Cassillis-Pope can barely stop herself from twirling.
It’s not hard to see how the 10-year-old ballerina beat the competition this month to win the Sydney leg of the Asian Grand Prix.
Her success has landed her a scholarship to compete in the Hong Kong final this year, competing against some of the best dancers in the world.
She’ll have her hands full though — Angelique practises once a week with the Queensland Ballet, will star in the Gold Coast Youth Ballet Company’s latest production and is set to feature in an upcoming ballet documentary.
She wouldn’t have it any other way. “I love it because you have to put all your emotion into it,” she said, adding she loves to choreograph her own dances.
“When you do someone else’s choreography it’s like getting told what to do. It’s fun doing that and making it perfect, but when you do your own it can really suit you and come from the heart.”
Having started dancing at just four years old she was taught by her mother Dianne Cassillis, a former dancer who started Gwen Wilson’s First Position Ballet School, to dance.
The studio is named for Angelique’s grandmother, who passed away just a few days after the lease was signed, and has become a place for mother and daughter to form a close bond.
“I expected her to hate it because I had been a dancer and I knew how hard it is,” Ms Cassillis said.
“I sent her to gymnastics because I’d always fancied being a gymnast, and we tried all sorts of different things. She hated it, she hated everything we tried.
“She came home and said, ‘Mummy, I want to be a dancer’, and I thought ‘oh my goodness. My mum said I’d have to teach her and that’s how everything started, for her.
“I just want her to be happy. If she can enjoy it now and love the art form, if she can love it and get something out of it that’s all I hope for.”
Angelique has a task ahead of her preparing for the August finals and is in training under several professional dancers.
If anything, her mother now has to wonder how she’s going to get her out of the studio to finish her homework.
The Asian Grand Prix finals in Hong Kong will be held August 12-17.