After working very hard for many years in my ballet classes perfecting my technique and artistry, it was so exciting, as well as scary, to have actually been accepted into The Royal Ballet School. This would mean that I would move to London by myself at the start of January 2017. The Award provided by the BBM Youth Support has helped me to travel to the UK to take up this wonderful offer.

Living in a boarding house is lots of fun. London is a beautiful place to live and the people have been really friendly as well. It has been a big learning curve to have to organise my time to allow for others to use the house facilities and to learn to get along with different personalities and people. Being away from my family is a challenge but knowing that I am working towards fulfilling my dream of dancing in a ballet company one day helps me cope with missing them.

I have had to learn to budget my money and do my own laundry and also find the energy to work hard in class and do my academic study as well. It is all very challenging but fun at the same time. I don’t mind the hard work as it helps me improve.

I have now completed one term of training at this prestigious school, which has been very rewarding and I have received my offer to go into second year. It’s been a wonderful experience to travel overseas and meet new people. I have made many new close friends and my training is going well. The BBM Youth Support Award enabled me to pay for my trip to the UK and help pay for tuition fees as well. This term I have started character dancing at the school, which has been very interesting and I enjoy it a lot. We also had our assessments this term, which I was very pleased with how I danced and I was also chosen to perform my classical repertoire solo from “Napoli” at the Solos Evening performances. This was a great experience; my Cecchetti ballet training definitely helped me with the challenging Bournonville style.

It was so exciting meeting one of my mentors, Steven McRae, who also studied at Alegria Dance Studios in Sydney, and who is now a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet Company and was a BBM Youth Support Award recipient in 2003. It is something that helps motivate me as he was an Australian dancer who made it overseas. As a student of The Royal Ballet School, I am often very lucky enough to be able to go and see performances at the Royal Opera House with the other students, which is an amazing experience and I get to see Steven dance quite a bit. I also meet him in the halls occasionally and he always waves hello or sometimes stops and asks how I’m going, which is very special to me.

At the end of the next term, I will get to dance at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden with the rest of the students in our annual end of year performance. This will be so amazing, to dance at such a beautiful theatre where many incredible principal dancers have performed.

I would not be where I am today, without the help and encouragement of many supporters and the BBM Youth Support Award is one of them. I wish to thank everyone at the BBM Youth Support for believing in me and helping me to move to London and follow my dreams.

Brayden Gallucci

16th May, 2017