The young New Plymouth ballerina pirouetting towards a bright future
Remember the name Jessica Peng – she might just be New Plymouth’s future international ballet star.
The 11-year-old Highlands Intermediate student has been learning ballet since she was 5, and currently has more than a dozen trophies to prove that she knows her stuff.
But dance teacher Alison Patterson says Jessica’s latest achievement – to be selected as a New Zealand School of Dance scholar for ballet – puts her on the path to greatness, should she want it.
“That’s one of the aims of the scholar programme – to give them experiences and the good training so it’s there if they make the decision later to be professional,” Patterson said.
Jessica, who also competes in netball and gymnastics and plays the tenor horn in the New Plymouth J Band, is the first of Patterson’s students to be selected as a scholar in her 32 years teaching dance.
“She’s amazing,” Patterson said.
“She comes in and she is so friendly with everyone. She takes every direction – she just shines because she is so focused on her dancing.”
Jessica, who can do the splits and return to a normal standing position quicker than most people can take two steps, is pragmatic about her achievement, which sees her fly to Wellington once a month for a three-hour training session.
“If I would like to be professional, I probably could,” she said.
“If I work hard.”
Jessica said that after her auditions, she did not think she had done enough to get a place in the prestigious school.
“I just felt so overwhelmed and really excited when I was offered a place,” she said.
Jessica’s mother Annie Wang said her daughter had always wanted to be a ballerina, and had experienced success straight away.
Over the years, she said, Jessica had collected dozens of trophies and ribbons through her ballet.
“Right, now she has 15 trophies,” she said. “We spend a lot of money on engraving.”