performance at the recent 2009 Australian Youth Dance Festival.

The students spent 12 days in Mandurah, Western Australia last month, converging with hundreds of others from across Australia for a week of intense training,

choreographing, performing and work.

In between the hard work, they also had some fun too.

“They had an absolute ball,” explained Cowra ballet school teacher Jan Munday.

“They were lucky enough to have some wonderful teachers. Their final performance was just magic.”

Each morning, from 9 until lunchtime, they trained with a

different choreographer every day, learning jazz, hip hop and many other different styles of dance.

After lunch, they worked with a specific choreographer to create a team piece which was

performed as a grand finale.

The students own

performance piece – of Cowra and what it was like for young people growing up in a small town – attracted the attention and compliments of the Festival’s elite, Mrs Munday said, with the Assistant Director even

specifically coming over once the performance was finished to

personally compliment the group.

As part of the dance festival, the Cowra students - Erin Watt, Christine Dernee, Mikayla Nelligan, Chloe Leach, Yasmin Morgan, Hayley Barker, Nicole Barker, Miranda Foster and Thalia Nelligan – also

participated in the 2009 Short Dance Film festival, seeing first hand the skills of capturing dance on the big screen.

Erin Watt described the 12 days in Western Australia as a great experience and a wonderful opportunity to learn.

“There were 160 other

participants, so just seeing,

meeting and learning form those other young dancers really

broadened our skills base,” Erin said.

“Seeing so many other dancers – and very different forms of dancing – really made me aware of other forms of dance.”

Amongst the choreographers teaching the students was So You Think You Can Dance Dance contestant Mark Panzic.