Sacrifice pays off

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 5

Sacrifice pays off

Sacrificing summer holidays to study at the Hawke’s Bay Summer School of Ballet has paid off for a Christchurch teenager, Elizabeth Cumming, who won the Rowena Jackson ballet scholarship as the school's most promising dancer. The scholarship provided $9OO for tuition fees and gave dancers a rare opportunity to study a full-time year with the National Theatre School in Melbourne. “It’s not really a great amount of money, but it’s the honour and encouragement to Elizabeth in getting the award that is very important,” said Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs Marie Cumming. Elizabeth will leave for Melbourne on February 6. She studied ballet since the age of eight, and was a student of Lorraine Peters, one of the founders of Southern Ballet and former teacher of the present principal dancer for the Australian Ballet School, Fiona Tonkin. A student at Cathedral College last year, Elizabeth passed her ballet and School Certificate examinations.

“Ballet has helped my school work a lot, because it has forced me to be more disciplined with my time,” said Elizabeth. “Most ballet students are in the same boat as me. It’s really important to do well at school so that you have something to fall back on if you don’t make it in ballet,” she said. School work for Elizabeth began a week before most other students. Now she will study ballet fulltime and will continue her

school studies by correspondence. "Because of that, I’ve had to thumb through sixth form maths books to prepare.” Although Elizabeth hoped to audition for the Australian Ballet School at the end of this year, she said it was unlikely she would get in.

“There are usually about 600 auditions for the school but only 18 dancers are selected,” she said. “I’m planning to work hard at ballet for as long as I possibly can because I love it and because I have a lot to make up to my parents for the time and hard work they put

into it,” Elizabeth said. Elizabeth is returning to New Zealand to perform, with about 14 other specially selected dancers, before the international ballet star, Rudolf Nureyev. He will visit Wellington in March for the International Festival of the Arts.