Dio Student Wins Coveted Place At Dance School

For Immediate Release

Dio Student Wins Coveted Place At Dance School

Diocesan School for Girls student Tiffany Pellow will wave goodbye to maths and English lessons when she finishes school for good this month – a year earlier than most of her peers.

Instead she’ll be studying anatomy, nutrition and music at the New Zealand School of Dance next year to help her perfect her ballet and contemporary dance.

The 16-year-old Year 12 Dio student is one of only four classical ballet dancers in New Zealand to be accepted into the Wellington-based national school for 2010 where she will study for at least two years.

A total of 13 ballet students, including nine from overseas, have been accepted into the New Zealand School of Dance – Classical Major.

Winning a place at the school is Tiffany’s second major dancing achievement this year.

She also won the John Logan Campbell Trust Ballet Award, after competing against 19 other dancers who all had to perform two classical variations for the prestigious competition.

As part of that award, she won $5000 which will go towards her living expenses in Wellington where she will stay in a hostel with other dance students.

“We have to cook all our own meals and do our own washing. It will be a whole new adventure for me but I am really looking forward to it,” says Tiffany.

“I am really excited about the idea of being able to dance all day.”

Students have classes from 8.30am to 6pm and study dance-related subjects as well as doing practical ballet and contemporary dance classes. After training for two years at the school, they can apply to be accepted for a third.

Tiffany started dancing when she was five and says her grandmother, Margaret Scrimshaw, who danced in the Royal Ballet in London, was a major influence on her.

Tiffany has attended the Mt Eden Dance Academy for the last five years and danced the lead in the academy’s ballet ‘Paquita’ at Auckland Grammar School in November.

Asked what she loves about dance, Tiffany says: “The performing and making myself someone who people love to watch. I’m passionate about it. I just love getting ready and transforming myself.”

After training at the New Zealand School of Dance, Tiffany wants to join the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company.

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