At 14, the girl from Arncliffe has the world of classical ballet at her feet. Her bright future was a door left slightly ajar since she slipped on her pointe shoes at age five, but now it has swung wide open.
The student from Endeavour Sports High School, Caringbah, and of Rogerson Dance Studios at Mortdale, was recently accepted into the Shanghai Ballet School.

Finola, who was part of the studio’s gifted and talented program, auditioned for the school last month. She will go to China on her own for six months in September this year, when she will start her studies at the boarding school.

‘‘I was nervous during my audition but I tried really hard because even though the students in my class were a year younger than me, they were amazing,’’ Finola said.

‘‘I’m excited to go there, but I will see how I like it and if I want to stay for more time.

‘‘Hopefully when I go back I will be as good as they are.’’

Finola has been part of the Junior Interstate Program at the Australian Ballet School for the past three years. Fellow dancer Kahlia De Matos will audition for the New Zealand Ballet School this year and for the Alvinali Contemporary School in New York next year, during the studio’s international tour.

(Article is from the St. George and Sutherland Shire Leader – written by Eva Tejszerski, Photo by Lisa McMahon)

Sara Andrlon

Sara is currently in Level 3 at the Australian Ballet School, in the Interstate Junior Associate Programme.

Sara is in Year 7 and is one of the students we have on our combined High School and Dance programme. Sara is in her first year on this programme and is finding that with these additional hours of dance she is coming on with great results. Sara will sit her Intermediate Ballet exam in November this year and will then go on to participate in the Royal Academy of Dance’s Isabel Anderson Awards at the start of 2012.

Sara has been a Semi Finalist in the SODA Classical Scholarship (Society of Dance Arts) in their 12/u age group.

2009 started with Finola Xie being a finalist in the Royal Academy of Dance’s Intermediate Foundation Isabel Anderson Scholarship.  This was then quickly followed by both Kahlia De Matos and Mitchell Hughes both performing with the Australian Ballet Company in their production of Nutcracker.

In the 2009 Auditions for the Australian Ballet Schools Interstate Junior Associate Programme we had 4 students offered spots commencing in 2010 with 3 all coming from the one class.  This saw Isabella Di Lucia, Emily Gomersall and Mariah Heley-Wright all being offered a position in Level 1 and Sara Andrlon being offered a spot in Level 2.  These 4 students join our current 3 students already in this prestigious programme.  Finola Xie was promoted mid year last year from Level 1 to Level 3 in the Australian Ballet Schools Interstate Junior Associate Programme, where she joined fellow class mates Kahlia De Matos and Mitchell Hughes.  This gives us an exceptional 7 students in 2010 in the Australian Ballet Schools Interstate Junior Associate Programme.

The success stories just kept coming as well.  Students and troupes participated in the prestigious McDonald’s Performing Arts Challenge, which saw Emily Gomersall receive 1^st place in the 9/u Classical Ballet and Highly Commended in the 9/u Demi Character; Kahlia De Matos was a finalist in the 13/u Contemporary and placed Highly Commended in the 13/u Modern Expressive; Isabella Di Lucia placed Highly Commended in the 9/u Classical Ballet; finished off by both our 14/u Contemporary and 12/u Contemporary Troupes placing Highly Commended.

Sara Andrlon then competed in the Society of Dance Arts 12/u Scholarship where she was a Semi Finalist, this is a fantastic achievement as Sara is still only 11 years old and has another year in the competition.

The year finished off with exceptional results in both our Royal Academy of Dance Ballet exams with 90% of students receiving Distinction results and 7 of these students achieving the very rare marks in the range of 90% to 96%.  Our Glenn Wood Tap exams also saw such great results with 14 Students being awarded Gold Awards (a mark of 98% or higher).

Mitchell Hughes then once again performed with the Australian Ballet Company in their Christmas production of Sleeping Beauty, Mitchell thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity and experience as this brought him back to work with the company in the ballet he started with in December 2005 at the age of 9, this was the 6^th time Mitchell has worked with the Australian Ballet Company.

What can we say the year then finished with our spectacular concert on 19^th December where all students had a great time and performed well.

We believe these great results are achieved as we offer an environment, which encourages all students to have fun and achieve their best.  Our staff are all qualified and respected within the industry and our studio has been a family business operating in the area for over 40 years, making us one of Sydney’s most respected dance schools.

New students are accepted and welcome at any time throughout the year.

Finola Xie was semi finalist in the prestigious SODA Classical Ballet Scholarship for 12/u it is the 2nd year she achieved such success.

Our 14/u Tap Group after being placed in their section at the City of Sydney – McDonald Challenge was invited to be a part of the City of Sydney – McDonald Challenges “Dance of the Champions”. We were very honoured to participate as the name Rogerson has been represented in the City of Sydney – McDonald Challenge for decades. Over this time we have achieved winners in all facets of the competition, and we were honoured to continue with building on our success at this competition.

In 2008 we also had 4 students who were Interstate Junior Associates at the Australian Ballet School. Two of these Associates Kahlia De Matos and Mitchell Hughes have both been selected to perform with the Australian Ballet Company in April 2009 as part of the cast of Graham Murphy’s Nutcracker. This will be Mitchell’s 4th time performing with the company and Kahlia’s first. During our schools strong history we have had many students go on to pursue successful careers in dance both within Australia and overseas, and we are sure our Associates and many others at the studio will follow in their footsteps.

To continue on with the strong success in 2008, 17 of our students went on a tour of London and Paris. This was a great success with the students taking classes at the prestigious Pineapple Studios in Covent Garden, touring and observing classes at the Royal Ballet School, attending musicals in the West End and to finish it off performing at Euro Disney. The students got so much out of this tour by working with professionals overseas and the opportunity to see what life was like in the industry. The students were complemented everywhere that they took class on how well they conducted them selves and how high their standard was, especially for their age. We were honoured to have these students represent the studio in this way. It was also such a great success with how many new friendships were formed amongst the families involved on the tour.

2008 has also been a year full of fantastic results in examinations. We had several students receive Gold Awards in Glenn Wood Tap exams, with no students gaining anything lower than a High Distinction. We also had exceptional marks in our RAD Ballet exams with the majority of our students receiving Distinction in both Majors and Grade examinations and several students gaining marks in the 90% range in both grades and majors.

Our students also participated in 2 concerts in 2008. In September we had a sell out concert for our 5 and unders. This was a fantastic show, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. 2008 finished off with our Annual Concert – Shine in the Spot Light at Sutherland Entertainment Centre on Friday 12th December. The students put on a spectacular show that made everyone proud.

Thomas Pickup & Mitchell Hughes both got a fair way through the Billy Elliot Auditions. Thomas got a call back only a few months ago for a final casting. Good Work Boys!

We also had a record number of Gold Awards in Glenn Wood Tap Exams, this is students receiving a result of 98% or above, these students are: Riley Jones, Aqueela Woods, Victoria Rorris, Isabella Di Lucia, Emma Stevens, Vanessa Chan, Valerie Chan, Laura Purcell and Mitchell Hughes.