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Home / Whanganui Chronicle / Lifestyle

Stretching out to fulfil a dream

By John Maslin
Whanganui Chronicle·
6 Mar, 2011 09:17 PM6 mins to read

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Talent comes in many forms in Wanganui and one of them is a young ballet dancer who has already been offered international scholarships. Chronicle reporter John Maslin catches up with a city teenager destined for big things.

Their names are a roll call from ballet's top drawer.
They include Gelsey Kirkland,
master teacher and former prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet; Irina Kolpakova, former prima ballerina with the Kirov Ballet; and Nina Osipyan, master teacher and former ballerina with the Moscow Classical Ballet.
And mixing it with them was a 14-year-old Wanganui kid, Amelia Chandulal-Mackay.
Milly - that's what her family call her - is showing rare talent as a dancer, and it's gaining her recognition at the highest levels.
Over Christmas, Milly and her parents, Anna Chandulal and Hamish Mackay, were in New York where she auditioned for the prestigious Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet.
Her talent was recognised and she was initially offered a place on the academy's five-week summer intensive. What she showed those internationally-recognised teachers was something special and the academy offered her a full-time position at the school.
But as hard as it must have been to make the call, Milly and her parents decided school back home had to take precedence.
"She was dancing all day for the five weeks in front of these teachers from all over the world," her mother Anna said.
"That was nice to get that sort of feedback about Milly's dancing and that scholarship being offered too. But for her to do that would have meant her doing her schooling by correspondence and we were reluctant for her to do that because she's only 14.
"We think it's important at her age she stays at school for another year or two."
She said the other consideration was about Milly's future in dance.
"Ballet dancers have a very short career. Most dancers are looking at 10 years, so starting at age 18 they're looking at retirement when they're 28 or early 30s," she said.
"So you've got to have at least your basic school qualifications and you've got to have something to go to after dance," Anna said.
Tough choices don't mean the dancing stops but rather it marks another significant milestone this bundle of ballet talent has racked up in a very short time.
For instance, last year she earned a distinction in the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) ballet examination, while her performance in the intermediate level one American jazz exam gained her the highest mark in the country. It's the third year in a row she's been adjudged the country's best.
This year, she's facing another round of high level examinations.
Come April and Milly heads to Sydney to compete against about 200 other dancers from throughout Australasia in the Alana Haines ballet competition.
So what has given this Year 10 Wanganui High School student the impetus that is bringing such success?
It probably helps that her mum runs the Wanganui Ballet and Dance Academy, in the old fire station building, on the corner of Guyton and Wilson Sts.
Anna was not a professional ballerina but felt the pull of the "intellectual side of dance" and took up teaching. Now her city academy tutors about 130 budding young dancers.
But for Milly to earn the recognition she has hasn't come without absolute dedication. She started dancing as a 5-year-old and approaches it with the same enthusiasm now nine years later.
And she has a very clear vision of her future.
"I want to be a dancer and with the New Zealand Ballet Company," she says matter-of-factly.
As far as her school studies are concerned, she plumps for English as her best subject and "I would like to get NCEA 1 and then possibly go to dance school after that".
She acknowledges that she works hard but says much of her success is down to her mum.
She's a bright girl and motivated, two traits which help both as a budding ballerina and at school. She's very well organised but has to be with her schedule. After school, she's home for about an hour to take care of her homework then she's at the academy practising until about 9pm, five days a week.
"It sometimes mean she has dinner when she gets home from the studio and then may have a little more homework to be done. You have to have a special personality to be able to do that. But if you're a serious dance student that's what you have to do," her mother said.
She said the fact Milly has succeeded, coming as she does from a small provincial centre such as Wanganui, spoke volumes.
"Some youngsters are overwhelmed by the insecurity of thinking they're from a small centre and can't compete against those dancers from places like Auckland or Wellington. But Milly has had success because of her commitment." And so her hectic programme continues.
Last month she was back in Sydney, taking up the senior scholarship she was awarded last year at the private performing arts school MacDonal College. This scholarship gave her an open door to this year's summer school at MacDonal.
There Milly danced before, and was tutored by, another bevy of international teachers in ballet, contemporary and jazz dance styles, as well as attending a class taken by Darcey Bussell, the former principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in London.
And this year she was accepted as a junior associate (classical) at the New Zealand Ballet School of Dance, a school open only to the country's exceptionally talented 13-17-year-old dance students.
Yet despite the recognition and successes she has chalked up so far, Milly has a pragmatic philosophy about dance and whether or not she succeeds at it. She knows that hard work has its rewards and, despite the long hours of practice, her enthusiasm for the art is unshakeable.
There's really nothing other than dance that appeals to her. Ask her if there was any other interests she had other than ballet she says: "Yes, jazz and contemporary dance"
Any other interest though?
"No. Just dancing."

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