By Corey Everitt
Year 12 Beaconhills student Mia Agland has earned a prestigious VCE Top Class award, putting her at the top of Victoria in her dance subject.
Her selection in Top Class is an acknowledgement of her exceptional skill in the performing arts, in Mia’s case it is contemporary/lyrical dancing.
Top Class presents 11 concerts by outstanding VCE students who have completed subjects in the performing arts.
Her achievement is brought through her dance solo, created and honed by her over last year.
Her performance culminated in a remarkable result for her Year 11 exams, with her selection she will now be performing her solo at the Melbourne Recital Centre, as part of the VCE Season of Excellence.
Throughout year 11, she gave complete dedication to refining her solo, yet she didn’t feel she would get far with her audition.
“I was pretty surprised, I didn’t expect to get such a good mark, and getting an offer for Top Class,“ she said.
“I didn’t do the audition thinking I would get in, I just thought it was a good opportunity for experience with the audition itself.”
Having accelerated her dance subject last year to complete Units 3 and 4 , she gave up many hours working on her solo.
“I always wanted to do VCE dance. I started my solo last summer holidays and got feedback from my teacher and kept practising every moment I could, every lesson, every lunch,“ Mia said.
She is not unfamiliar with Top Class performances before, it’s an exciting and almost frightening thought for her that this year she will be the one on the stage.
“I’m really nervous, I have gone to top class many times before and watched the solos, liked what I liked and didn’t like what I didn’t like,“ she said.
“To now be the one performing and to have that judgement on me is a bit scary.”
Despite nerves, dancing is natural to Mia having done for the last 15 years and her solo is ingrained as reflex and muscle memory.
Mia thanked her mum for encouraging her to audition and Ms Eastwood – former Head of Performing Arts, Berwick Campus – for having faith in her strengths as a dancer. She also gave special thanks to Suzie Ryrie School of Dance in Berwick which has been a part of life since she was 3-years-old.
She still has a lot of work ahead of her with her final year of High School, she looks to study in Health Science and Nutrition beyond. In the mean time she will be continuing to refine her skills and passion for dancing.
