Dancing teen chasing chance of lifetime

Brianna Hobson and her family will be selling cakes this weekend, to further her ballet ambitions. Photo/Stuart Munro

The family of Wanganui's 16-year-old Brianna Hobson is making a massive effort to get her to an intensive five days of dance in Wellington.

Brianna has been a student of the Shirley McDouall School of Dance since she was three years old. Her ambition is to be among the handful of students accepted into the New Zealand School of Dance.

Last year she went to its Winter School, five days of intensive dance classes in July.

This year she wants to go again, but it will cost $2500 to $3000 for accommodation and fees.

The family is putting on a monster garage sale to raise the money. It's at the Maori Wardens Trust hall at 61 Dublin St on Saturday and Sunday, from 8.30am to 4.30pm.

Brianna and her mum, Latisha Hobson, have been making cakes, cupcakes, cookies and chocolates, with a ballet theme. There will also be raffles, clothes, toys and bric-a-brac for sale. It's a team effort - her grandparents will be helping too.

The 16-year-old is the most senior student at her Wanganui dance school, and dances there for two or three hours a day, six days a week. One of her roles is helping with the three-year-olds.

"They all come in tutus and it's very cute," she said.

She wants to try for the NZD next year. She's one of the top academic students at Wanganui High School and has been doing NCEA Level 2 and 3 units this year, in case she is accepted.

If she doesn't get in she wants to try again the following year.

Her teachers have told her she should go to university instead, and get a "real" job. But she knows youth is the time for a career in dance.

"With ballet it's something that you don't have very long to do."

One of her heroes is the NZD artistic director, Ethan Steifel, who starred in the film Centre Stage.

Another is Li Cunxin, the subject of the film Mao's Last Dancer. She was lucky enough to meet and talk to him in a cafe in Wellington. And she was waiting outside the Royal Wanganui Opera House to get autographs when Tutus On Tour came through town.

She can't quite explain the power of her attraction to dance.

"You just get a passion for something and you want to keep doing it. [Ballet] is one of the hardest things to get into but if you enjoy doing it it's worth trying."