Originally from The Blue Mountains, I’m now a student at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, currently in my first year completing an Advanced Diploma in performing arts (dance). I have just arrived back in Western Australia from an amazing trip to United Kingdom and Ireland thanks to the Cecchetti Ballet Australia and a BBM Youth Support Award. I have had such a wonderful trip and have so many rewarding experiences and memories to share, so I’ll start at the beginning…
Shortly after receiving the exciting news that I had been chosen for a BBM Youth Support Award I had to move to Western Australia. This was a big change in my life moving away from home and starting my intense full-time diploma course. I was unsure when to use my Award I would only be able to go during the July mid year break or over the Christmas period but both these times presented problems in the UK. During the English summer break (July) many schools and companies were closed and at Christmas they were too busy with performances. Eventually I decided to go in the mid year break, as it worked best for me and for my study timetable. I was incredibly fortunate and had a wide variety of experiences on my trip, even thought I encountered difficulties in the planning.

Before departing Australia I had to plan an itinerary for my six week trip to the United Kingdom. My main passion is classical ballet, my ultimate goal is to work with a professional ballet company. So I thought this trip would be a perfect opportunity to experience life in a company and to see what the standard is like in Europe and what Europe has to offer in dance.

I e-mailed companies around the UK and Ireland, Ballet Ireland, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre and Independent Ballet Wales, asking if it was possible to take part in or observe their daily classes. I also e-mailed some of the top schools in England, English National Ballet School, Central Ballet School and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance to see if I could join in classes for a week or two. I applied for the English National Ballet School (ENBS) summer school, and was put on the waiting list as my application was a little late reaching them. I only found out I was accepted into the summer school during my second week in the UK! All these arrangements were quite difficult, some replies to my enquiries arrived very late some did not reply at all. Everything I wanted to do seemed to be happening at the same time, the week I was doing a summer school with ENBS there was also one in Wales with the dancers of the Independent Ballet Wales taking classes so It was difficult trying to work out a timetable. Eventually I had a variety of classes and experiences organised and In the end it worked out very well. I ended up with three very different dance opportunities and also time to explore and get to know the city of London.

I began my trip exploring London with Mum, after not seeing her for five months it was so great catching up! We had a week together, so after recovering from the jet lag, we did some sight seeing. We took a day trip to Oxford, it was an hour trip on the train from the amazingly busy Paddington station. I loved Oxford it is so beautiful, a picture perfect little old town. My Mum took a walking tour of some of the university colleges and I just took a stroll through the shops. There were University students walking around and riding through town in cloaks with a carnation pinned on, as they had exams on and this was their uniform! It was like another world full of old traditions. We relaxed in the lovely botanical gardens, there was a river running through with people hiring out punts and floating along.

Mum and I also visited the Tate Modern Art Gallery, situated in South Bank right on the river Thames in London, the building is like a huge warehouse, it had some really interesting works and I enjoyed the atmosphere.