Madison Sparkman dreams of a career as a professional ballerina, and over the past few weeks she's had two of Australia's premiere dancers coaching her online.
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As part of the Australian Ballet Virtual Mentoring Program, principal artists Amber Scott and Ty King-Wall have provided several mentoring sessions for Madi who has been practising in the garage of her Invermay Park home.
Madi, 13, has been dancing since she was five and her teachers at Anita Coutts School of Dance nominated her and three other young ballerinas for the program, which is a collaboration between the Australian Ballet, Telstra and regional dance schools.
Not only did Madi have virtual coaching sessions with two of her favourite dancers, she also performed live on the Today Show to showcase the program.
Over the past three weeks Madi has learned and practised a set piece of dance, had a coaching session, taken their advice on board and practised more, had a question and answer session and her parents filmed her final dance to send in to the program.
"Due to the current state of the world and having to undergo major changes to our normal ways of working, Telstra and The Australian Ballet collectively have developed a mentorship program for our dancers to connect with the wider, regional audience, albeit virtually," an Australian Ballet spokesperson said.
"The Virtual Mentoring program has been built on the success of past, smaller scale virtual mentoring programs. (It) will provide additional learning resources in a time that it may not be accessible, and help inspire and mentor the younger generation of ballet dancers."
Madi's mum Natalie said her daughter dreamt of becoming a professional dancer.
"This program has been an absolute highlight during this time of isolation," Mrs Sparkman said.
Madi has been continuing her regular dance lessons via online sessions, with a practice space in the garage.
"One requirement of the Australian Ballet program was that each student had a little area within their home to practice. Because Madi and her sister have been doing online dance classes through their dance school we set up an area in the garage for them to dance.
"Madi absolutely loves her ballet. She would like to pursue a career in ballet if that's the way it turns out."
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