Local dancer headed to the big smoke to chase dream
LOCAL STORY
A Wonga Beach teenager has been selected for a position at a prestigious dance school in Melbourne, proving that small-town dreams can become a reality.
Eighteen-year-old Miranda Hartley has been dancing at Bodies in Motion Dance School in Mossman for seven years and just two weeks ago she performed in her final production with the school.
Following an emotional goodbye to the school, Miranda will now embark on her next dancing chapter: heading to Melbourne in January to study at Patrick Studios Australia.
Patrick Studios Australia is a full-time dance professional development program catering to dancers seeking a career in the entertainment industry and entrance to the course is highly competitive.
For Miranda, it was top of her preference list, so she sent off her application and was accepted the very next day.
Miranda said she will spend the next 12 months dancing full time at the studio to gain her certificate III in performing arts.
“You get to the point in dance where you can either pursue a career or stop so I've decided to continue down the performance track.
“It was couple years ago I thought I just can't imagine not dancing at any point in my life so that was kind of when I thought okay what can I do; I could teach dance or I could go into choreographing for other people, but I decided I wanted to go into performing,” she said.
Miranda said that dance has given her more than just a career path, crediting it with shaping the women she has grown into.
“I was quite young when I started, and I was a really shy kid but after probably the first or second year of dancing I was able to come out of my shell a lot more.
“Dance has given me a lot more confidence than what I used to have and I feel like if I hadn't obtained that confidence through dancing, I wouldn't be able to do a lot of other things that I'm doing now or going to be doing in the future,” she said.
Miranda added while she doesn’t know quite where she wants to end up yet, a career in dance is a dream come true.
“I feel like I'm really lucky to love something that I can turn into a career; it doesn't just have to be a hobby, I can love what I end up doing as a job,” she said.
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