Years in the studio practicing pirouettes and pliés have paid off for one 11-year-old Grand Boulevard resident, who has been selected among thousands of auditioners to join the National Ballet School of Canada.
Callie Murcutt will be one of 15 students to enrol in Grade 6 of the Toronto-based school’s professional ballet program, where she will begin this September and stay on site studying until the end of July next year.
“We are so very proud of her, and we are excited to see what the future holds“, said mom Nicole Murcutt, adding how she will “definitely miss her” but will make much use of the school’s breaks. “We’re really here to support her and make her dreams happen.”
The Canyon Heights Elementary student auditioned for a summer spot at the prestigious school last fall, later nabbing a position among 30 other students to attend its summer intensive program on the school's Toronto grounds in July.
Following the four week program, the school invited 15 of those students to enrol in its professional ballet program.
The summer school had been a mere taste of what's to come when Murcutt begins class in September, with days at NBS comprising a jam-packed schedule. Dancing will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., while academic learning takes up the afternoon following the lunch break.
The classes essentially offer “Olympic-level training,” said Murcutt’s mom, with conditioning, physiotherapy and pool exercises.
Murcutt said Callie first discovered her passion for dance when enrolling in contemporary and ballet lessons with ICanDance at the Lynn Valley Village Community Complex, at the age of three. A dream for pursuing ballet as a career was fully cemented when she was six, when her formal training began at the North Shore’s Vanleena Dance Academy.
The National Ballet School of Canada has been a much-coveted gateway to a professional career in ballet since its founding in 1959.
With Order of Canada member and Canada’s Walk of Fame inductee Rex Harrington, along with director, filmmaker and former prima ballerina Veronica Tennant counting among some of the school’s alumni, Murcutt said she knows she will be among good company in the classroom.
The high-calibre environment will likely foster motivation as much as intimidation among students, but Murcutt said she suspects her daughter will not be fazed by the workload or school life penned for the coming months.
“So far she has really liked the training, she really enjoyed it there. This opportunity is exceptional,” she said.
Throughout Murcutt’s studying stint the school will be assessing students’ performance to decide whether to invite them back for a second year, with the lucky few being able to continue their learning from Grade 6 right up until Grade 12.
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
