By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
NO LONGER dancing in her lounge room to James Blunt, Sophie Beaty, from Berwick, will be among the youngest dancers to join the Australian Ballet School (ABS).
Sophie, 12, has been training in pointe shoes for just over a year at Narre Warren’s Backstage Dance Academy and in her first audition for the ABS’s after school program Sophie landed much more than she had expected.
“They wanted to see more after my audition, which was really exciting,” Sophie said.
Blowing them away with her talent Sophie was asked to join the prestigious school permanently.
A dancer since the age of three the Beaconhills College Year 7 student will be leaving the school for the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) next year.
“By day I will be doing academic studies at VCA and then I’ll walk over to the ABS and do what I love,” Sophie said.
“Ballet is very disciplined but it’s always been my dream. I’ve never said I don’t like this anymore, I’ve always said I want to be a prima ballerina when I grow up.”
Dancing from 4.30pm to just after 9pm three nights a week at her local dance academy Sophie also trains with the Melbourne City Youth Ballet all day on Sundays.
“I love doing it every day, I can just imagine myself dancing for the rest of my life – it’s what I want to do,” the rising star said.
Sophie will start at level four (first year of full time training) with the ABS in February next year and will be performing in the Melbourne City Youth Ballet’s the Nutcracker on Sunday 1 November.
