Youth achiever: Tauranga ballet dancer soars to new heights

Olivia Moore has been dancing since she was 3 years old and has always wanted to be a ballerina with the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company.

Now the 16-year-old from Matua says she's "living her dream" dancing, touring and training with the company she set her sights on joining all those years ago.

Last year at age 15 Olivia was offered a year-long contract to join the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company - the youngest entrant for that year.

The company's artistic director, Patricia Barker, made the offer after seeing Olivia dance during the NZ School of Dance 50th-anniversary graduation performance in Wellington.

Barker said she instantly saw Olivia's "tremendous potential".

"Olivia's level of technique and maturity was enchanting ... She is a talented young dancer and someone to keep an eye on for years to come," she said.

Last week the gifted teenager made her debut during the Tutus on Tour series at Baycourt, and she was also given a rare chance to perform as a soloist on debut.

"It was an amazing experience," the excited teenager said.

Over the summer, Olivia also completed a month-long scholarship to train at the National Ballet School of Canada and "absolutely loved it".

Even at 13, it was obvious Olivia was destined for big things when she became one of only
13 dancers in 2015 accepted to train at the prestigious New Zealand School of Dance.

Olivia did her earlier training with the Dance Education Centre in Matua.

Dance Education Centre's Debbie Gooch said Olivia had shown the "incredible maturity" on par with ballerinas in their 20s.

"Olivia definitely has the X-factor, and when she danced at Baycourt most of the audience's eyes were on her ... She couldn't have a better support team in her parents and the perfect mentor in Patricia Barker," Gooch said.

Proud mother Kat Moore said her daughter has always had an "innate' talent for expressing everything about herself through her dancing.

"Olivia has always been driven, and she is just amazing in terms of what she has achieved at just, 16 both with her dancing and her schoolwork," she said.

To increase her chances of turning pro early, Olivia skipped a year at school and completed her NCEA Level 1 studies by correspondence.

She humbly revealed she achieved endorsements and merit in most of her subjects.

Olivia said it had taken lots of hard work and commitment to get where she is today, and she hoped to complete her NCEA Level 2 studies by the middle of this year.

"This is obviously what I have always wanted to do, and I'm quite literally living my dream come true," she said.

Back home in Tauranga for a week, the gifted dancer is due to start rehearsals for the company's Dancing with Mozart national tour which starts next month.

Waiting in the wings are Olivia's sisters, Arabella, 14, and Loulou, 10, also training with the Dance Education Centre and both have danced on the international stage.