Having started at the young age of two, Year 12 student Eliza Edwards can’t remember a time when she wasn’t dancing.
And if current achievements are anything to go by, she has a lifetime of dance to look forward to - having recently been one of very few students across the State accepted to perform at the VET Dance ‘Top Class - Seasons of Excellence’ concert, set to take place on Thursday February 25 at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Eliza was selected to audition for this concert after receiving outstanding results in VET Dance which she completed at Marymede Catholic College in 2015 – finishing with an overall study score of 47 out of 50, the second highest in the State.
To audition, Eliza prepared two solo performances in Contemporary and Jazz dance, with the later earning her selection into this year’s exhibition. “I was pretty nervous but also really excited going into the Audition” says Eliza, who now dances 4 nights a week at ‘Bev Palmer Performing Arts’ in South Morang.
And whilst she loves everything about dancing – “performing, being up on stage and just everything!” she has found her passion to be a particularly helpful outlet during her VCE years – “dancing allows me to express myself and have a small amount of time away from studies and the demands of VCE.”
This year Eliza is undertaking VCE Dance, English, Further Maths, Health & Human Development and Physical Education. She hopes to complete her VCE studies before exploring some options overseas in 2017 and beyond. “I’m hoping to eventually travel the world through my dancing and see where that takes me.”
For now though, the focus is solely on VCE and her upcoming Top Class concert, although she does have some great advice for young aspiring dancers: “Go for it! Just keep dancing and don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve something – anything is possible.”
Marymede Catholic College would like to congratulate Eliza on this outstanding achievement and we wish her all the very best in her final year of Secondary school and future dancing endeavours.
Photo Courtesy of the Edwards Family