AUSTRALIAN Ballet performer Alexandra Moore was “that kid” in the audience when the company performed in Ballarat in 2009.
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The teenager had been obsessed with dancing since she was a toddler and with more than a decade of ballet classes under her belt she dreamed of becoming a professional.
Just a few years later that dream came true when she was accepted in to the Australian Ballet School.
Now aged 19 she is in her first year with the Australian Ballet and will perform in Ballarat for the first time since 2012.
Ms Moore performs in the Australian Ballet Regional Tour’s production of Giselle at Her Majesty’s Theatre next month.
“In the company at the moment there’s four dancers who trained in Ballarat, which says a lot about the dance community in Ballarat,” she said.
“It’s important to tour to regional areas. You never know what little kid is watching in the audience thinking this is what they want to do. I must have been that kid in the crowd in 2009.”
Ms Moore has been dancing for 16 years since her mum enrolled her in her first ballet class in Ballarat when she was three. “She said that I was dancing around at home and she thought she’d put me in to dance classes to get rid of some energy.”
A career as a professional dancer was something she always wanted.
“Mum said that even as a kid when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up I always answered ballerina. I don’t really remember a time when I didn’t want that.”
That dedication saw her leave school in Ballarat at the end of year nine to enrol in the Australian Ballet School for four years. For two years she commuted daily to Melbourne for classes before she moved there for her final two years.
Ms Moore said it’s not uncommon to be rehearsing and performing two or three different ballets at any one time.
Australian Ballet artistic director David McAllister said regional touring was an important part of the company since its first tour in 1966.
“This year we are taking one of the most treasured works - the romantic classic Giselle on the road. This is a ballet that all dancers love dancing and I am sure these dancers will follow in the footsteps of world-famous Italian ballet dancer Carlotta Grisi, who was so well known for performing the role of Giselle,” he said.
The Australian Ballet Regional Tour will perform Giselle at Her Majesty’s Theatre on July 8. Tickets from hermaj.com