Courtney takes her dream to Australia
Courtney Constance says she always knew she wanted to dance.
And now the talented Taupo¯ teen is following her dance dream to Australia, where she has been accepted for the full-year dance training programme and a partial scholarship at the prestigious Ettingshausens Performing Arts School in Australia.
Courtney has been studying classical ballet, contemporary and jazz through Dance Central as well as developing her choreographic skills for Tauhara College’s dance groups. She has competed across the country in dance competitions and has been part of Dance Central’s Senior Performance troupe which has competed at PACANZ and Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park.
This year Courtney gained Distinction in her Royal Academy of Dance grade 8 ballet exam, APDA contemporary level 8, AJDA advanced 2 jazz and Solo Seal jazz exams, all with outstanding results. Since Courtney began dance she has gained Distinction results in almost every exam she has done. She and two other Dance Central dancers, Alana Pointon and Aimee Coleman, gained three of the top five placings in the APDA contemporary grade this year.
Courtney leaves Taupo¯ on January 24 and has a week to find a place to live before the course starts. After it finishes in December she would like to move onto dancing on cruise ships but says she expects Ettingshausens will open up a range of new opportunities.
A relative latecomer to the art, Courtney began dancing at 11 and her teachers say that right from the start her cheerful smile, passion and determination signalled a bright future.
“I always had a passion for dancing. I used to dance around the house and really enjoyed it and then started doing dance lessons, and soon after I started doing dance competitions.”
Courtney has specialised in ballet, jazz, contemporary and hip hop and has also done musical theatre and lyrical dance for competitions. When she started at college she got even more involved and began to dance a lot at school. She went on to choreograph dance items, several of which have won national dance competitions that school dance groups have been to.
“I kind of just always knew that I wanted to dance. I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do.
Tauhara College’s Dance NZ Made winning entry Unsteady was choreographed by Courtney and she also was a member of Young Queenz which won the national competition in 2016.