A Geraldine teenager is striving to continue pursuing her classical dancing dreams at one of the most influential and prestigious ballet schools in the world.
Eighteen-year-old Faith Shaw has spent the past 10 months training at the world-renowned Vaganova Ballet Academy in St Petersburg, Russia.
Established in 1738, Vaganova has produced some of the world’s most famous dancers and choreographers, including Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
After completing her first year of training, Miss Shaw arrived back in South Canterbury last week and will be holding a high-tea fundraiser at Fraser Park on July 5 to help fund the $20,000 needed to return for her second year.
The fundraiser will include a silent auction and raffles, as well as a special presentation from Miss Shaw about her journey at Vaganova so far.
She said she first began ballet classes with Jill Ranger at the Ranger School of Dance, in Timaru, at age 4.
“My two older sisters started before me, I saw them doing it and I thought ‘oh, I want to do that too’.
“I decided I was going to be a ballerina when I was 5 years old. We had our first show at the Theatre Royal and I loved it so much I told my mum it was what I wanted to do every day when I was older.”
She was inspired even further when the Imperial Russian Ballet Company visited Timaru, she said.
“I was 9 and they needed child dancers, so they used children from the different schools [around Timaru].
“After seeing those incredible ballerinas on stage and getting to dance next them, if anyone asked me where I wanted to dance, I’d always say I wanted to dance in Russia.”
As she got older she began taking ballet seriously, practising a lot on her own, and moved to Christchurch when she was 16 to train full-time at the Fledgling Programme at Counterpointe.
“There, my teacher, Monica Brosnahan, coached me and helped me prepare audition videos because I really wanted to get into a European School as there’s a lot more opportunity in Europe.
“I applied to about 20 different schools all over Europe and there were a lot of noes. It was a very long, stressful process but I ended up getting a yes from Vaganova.”
There were many moments where her dream felt impossible.
“I auditioned for the New Zealand School of Dance and I put all my hopes and dreams in it because I thought ‘I’m from a little town in New Zealand, this is my only shot to ever have a career, I’ve got to get in or otherwise it’s over’.
“I didn’t get an interview and I felt like that was it, there was no moving forward — but I just kept going anyway.
“All through that, I never thought Vaganova would be the one that said yes. I’m very glad that I did have those noes, even though they felt terrible at the time, because it actually meant that I ended up in the right place.”
She arrived in Russia at the end of August last year and began her training on September 1.
“It was a bit scary heading out there because I didn’t know what to expect at all.
“The first couple of weeks, I remember just like walking around St Petersburg and the school and thinking, ‘is this real?’ and being so scared that maybe they made a mistake and I was going to get kicked out any second.”
Her classes are held Monday to Saturday each week, starting at 8.30am and running through until 5.30pm, with rehearsals afterwards making days sometimes run until 8pm.
She had classical class with her ballet teachers every morning and then would do her academics online, unlike the Russian students, she said.
She would also have Russian language class three times a week and then an afternoon extra-curricular class like acting, character dance or pas de deux (duet) twice a week for each subject.
“In the ballet studio, the teachers are nice but they are very, very tough on you. They take it very seriously and they will tell you very honestly if you’re doing something wrong and to fix it.
“It’s an intense environment sometimes but they have such a love for it.”
Her ultimate goal was to dance professionally in a company, Miss Shaw said.
“Before going to Vaganova, I just wanted to dance in any company, and do it professionally.
“Now that I’ve made it to Vaganova, which I thought was an impossible thing, my greatest ambition now would be to join the Mariinsky Theatre which is affiliated with Vaganova.
“It is one of the biggest companies in the world and the most common way to get in is to graduate the Vaganova Academy and at your graduation exam, the director comes and watches and he will choose the students that he wants to take into the company.
“I think this year only one girl and one boy were taken into the company. It’s very difficult, practically impossible, especially for international students but that’s the dream.”
She would always be thankful and look back fondly on her time at the Ranger School of Dance, she said.
“Jill was my most influential teacher and taught me the basics and how to love dance, it’s where my dreams started.
”Even when I’ve been over the other side of the world or with other teachers, she’s always been there and supported me through it, she’s been amazing and such a big help.”
Mrs Ranger said as a teacher, seeing Miss Shaw go on to achieve what she had so far was like winning the lotto.
“It’s pretty mind-blowing. I think in your early years teaching, you assume that you’ll eventually have a nice dancer and the thing is, you do, but you often have some heartbreaking things happen.
“You’ll have the most beautiful dancers and then they don’t want to do it anymore, they want to go play netball. We’ve had some lovely girls in the last few years who, for one reason or another, can’t do it.
“Sometimes they are physically not right or there are health issues, it doesn’t really take much to tip that scale. I’m getting to the end of my career and Faith is the first [to get to this level], and probably the last, so it’s very exciting.”
A dancer’s life was quite a short one and things could not really be put on hold, she said.
“We can’t really just say we’ll do it next year or the year after, time is ticking away and Faith needs to be back there.
“She’s proven herself, she’s already completed a year and we know that she loves it. She is made for it, it’s her destiny.
“Most people in Timaru wouldn’t have any idea that we’ve got this lovely elite athlete who needs to finish her training so she can show her beautiful talents to the world.
“If it was as a sport there would be lots of avenues out there [for funding], but for the arts there are limited opportunities.”
The event at Fraser Park will begin at 2pm and run until 5pm, tickets are $50 per person.
Limited seats are available and tickets need to be booked by emailing surehaveneducation@gmail.com before June 29.
Anyone unable to attend but still wishing to support Miss Shaw can do so by emailing the same address for more information.
