BALLARAT Centre of Music and the Arts student Ashton van Raaphorst has been rewarded for his dedication and commitment to his art with a place in the Cecchetti Ballet Victoria scholars\u2019 program.<\/p>\n
Dancers who are currently excelling are chosen for the program, which provides subsidised tuition at the Victorian Cecchetti Ballet headquarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll have professional guest teachers that come in and do masterclasses with you,\u201d said Ashton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be a professional ballet dancer and I think being able to see it in a different perspective with teachers that don\u2019t see me often will help me see ballet in a different light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifteen-year-old Ashton has been studying ballet for the last four years, two of which were during the COVID-19 pandemic with classes were conducted via online video.<\/p>\n
He recently got a score of 100 per cent on the grade six Cecchetti exam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my fourth year of ballet at BCMA and I do classes twice a week,\u201d Ashton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done heaps of shows with them and my ballet teachers Ella and Julia have helped me so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashton said he enjoys the technical aspects of ballet and getting to express his emotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn ballet it\u2019s so technical and it has to be perfect, and I love things having to be perfect and the artistry involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like getting to put my emotions through my dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BALLARAT Centre of Music and the Arts student Ashton van Raaphorst has been rewarded for his dedication and commitment to his art with a place in the Cecchetti Ballet Victoria scholars\u2019 program. Dancers who are currently excelling are chosen for the program, which provides subsidised tuition at the Victorian Cecchetti Ballet headquarters. \u201cThey\u2019ll have professional […]<\/p>\n