Cultural Icons - Our First Nations Cadets

AW: I really liked the idea of getting to travel to new places, meet new people and exchange stories and skills. I love sharing my knowledge of dance and teaching young people how to express themselves through movement and getting the opportunity to perform on top of that was incredibly rewarding.

TS: The Australian Ballet Education & Outreach team came to Cairns and did some workshops when I was only a young boy at the time. In 2022, after I graduated school and turned 18, I joined The Australian Ballet team First Nations cadets because I wanted to pursue dance and travel.

AW: One of the most valuable experiences during my cadetship was having the opportunity to perform Pomi & Gobba in Wagga Wagga, presenting it back to the Elders and community on Wiradjuri land where the story originates. It was an honour to share how the work had progressed and learn more about the origins of the story and the land it’s from. I also learnt so much about teaching from everyone on the team. Everyone brought so much knowledge and experience to the team and I will be calling on this in my new position as a dance tutor for Bangarra’s Rekindling Youth Program.

TS: A valuable learning experience that I will hold onto and use in the future is teaching. The teaching side really opened my eyes and helped me then use these teaching skills in a project with Phunktional Arts. I’d like to thank Jasmin and the rest of the education team for teaching me to teach.

AW: One of the challenges I faced with the cadetship was the time constraints in learning both the teaching syllabus in addition to the performance of Pomi & Gobba. It was very fast paced and a lot of information to remember, but in the end, I found it very beneficial to focus on learning as much in the studio as we could before heading off on tour to pick up what was left to learn along the way. The team were very patient when it came to remembering sections of the class and were always there to help us whenever we needed.

TS: I’ve done a lot of freestyle and traditional dance in the past, so learning a 20 min contemporary/ballet duet was a new experience, and performing it was a proud and fun moment.