KEY POINTS:
In a land famed for breeding brooding rugby hard-men and athletics trailblazers, a room full of young Kiwi dancing lads may be hard to take for some.
But the 20 boys from around New Zealand who yesterday auditioned for two lead roles in Sydney stage phenomenon Billy
Elliot The Musical were not ashamed of their gifts.
As they kicked, leaped, tapped and spun through a 90-minute audition in Auckland's Corelli School of the Arts, the dancers, aged between 8 and 12, were vying for an impressively paid immersion in the Sydney stage show limelight, complete with a personal team of minders and tutors.
The stage show - based on the Oscar-winning 2000 British film and set to an Elton John-penned score - has garnered impressive reviews in its first two productions in London and Sydney.
A New York production will follow in September.
Like the movie, the stage show centres on the underdog struggle of the title character, a boy raised by a coal-mining father to be a boxer but who finds his passion and gift is in dancing.
"We're looking for real grit and determination. It's an energy as much as anything," production publicist J.P. Bolton told the Herald yesterday.
Australia and New Zealand were both nations with national psyches reflecting that energy, he said.
"And the standard here is really good. It's not about movement for movement's sake. It's about all of our childhood dreams being realised, or unrealised. That requires a real believable kind of guts. And we Australasians understand that battler kind of mentality."
The boys were auditioning for the two roles of Billy and his friend Michael. The roles were now filled by four boys in Sydney, Mr Bolton said, but "mother nature" frequently made the boys unsuitable for their roles, as growth spurts and broken voices were an ever-present possibility.
So the production was constantly scouring Australia and New Zealand looking for the next stars to fill expected vacancies.
One potential candidate from yesterday's audition was Wellington 12-year-old Leslie Bowman.
A dancer for nine years, Leslie turned heads when he placed sixth in last year's World Dance Challenge in Las Vegas.
Leslie said he had no ambition to be an All Black, and instead had set his sights on dancing at the highest level.
Although he was one of only five boy tap dancers he knew of in Wellington, his friends didn't give him grief for his drive to dance. His parents also supported him.
Mr Bolton said the idea of dance being for girls only had been largely obliterated in recent times. The popularity of Billy Elliot and reality shows such as So You Think You Can Dance had changed perceptions.
"Dancing is not dying by any means. In fact, there is some kind of resurgence."
