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EVERY DAY Holly Smith puts on her dancing shoes as she moves one step closer to pursuing her dream of starting her own ballet school.
The Woodley teenager was recently awarded a place at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, near Aylesbury, where she had hoped to study classical dance.
Beating 300 other dances to a spot at the coveted school, the Bulmershe pupil was thrilled to be offered a place. But at £8,000 per term, her hopes were dashed when she lost out on the one funded place.
“It was quite devastating really,” said Mum, Laura. “But as one door shuts, another one opens.”
The family applied to 20 different organisations, charities and foundations for support, but with dance usually seen as an art, not a sport, grants were almost impossible, Laura said.
Not one to be beaten, Holly is still hopeful of finding a sponsor — but if that falls through, it won’t keep her off the stage.
Earlier this month, she was awarded £100 funding from Woodley Town Council, to purchase her first pair of pointe shoes.
Visiting the Bloch store in Covent Garden before one of her Friday classes at The Academy of Balletic Arts, Holly was fitted with her satin pink pair, she said.
Carefully built to support the feet, Holly said the toe pads — or ouch pads as she calls them — provide extra cushioning when en pointe.
Their purchase marks the next step in her dance career, as she prepares to take her Grade 5 International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA) exam on Saturday.
Also Grade 6 in bbodance and Grade 5 in Cecchetti — an Italian style of ballet — Holly hopes to perform in many shows, and later train to become a ballet teacher and own her own dance school.
“I think I’d be good at teaching, because I follow my own teachers, and I have my own tips and tricks,” she said.
With lessons every day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday, Laura said she, along with husband Neil, “do a cracking taxi service”.
“She has lots of rehearsal for shows,” Laura said. “But when it comes together, it’s very impressive.
“I think dancing on a stage has given her the confidence to pursue this as a career — it’s every girl’s dream to be a dancer.”
Holly hopes to dance in shows and festivals around the county as soon as they restart.
Anyone interested in supporting Holly’s dancing career can contact Wokingham.Today
