Perth’s Tabitha Wachter knew she was destined to dance from an early age.
“Ever since I first saw ballet, I loved it, so I knew really early on that I wanted to make it my career,” she enthuses.
Tabitha Wachter at Charlesworth Ballet Institute. Photo courtesy of Wachter.
The passionate dancer, who has been studying dance full-time at the Charlesworth Ballet Academy since the age of 11, is already a veteran International Ballet Workshops (IBW) attendee at just 15 years old.
She’s excited to have won a feature in Dance Informa as part of an Early Bird draw for IBW’s “British Ballet Series” in January, which will be headlined by guest teacher Ken Ludden, director of the Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet (New York).
“I’ve attended three IBW workshops in the past and have found them a really valuable opportunity to gain some intensive mentoring,” says Wachter. “I just enjoy getting to learning from different teachers and hearing what they have to say about my dancing.”
Tabitha Wachter. Photo by Mike Duffy.
Ludden will not only be offering his guidance to the young dancers like Wachter, but he’ll also be on the lookout for talented IBW attendees to participate in the Australian premiere of his new ballet, Né: Roi, in 2019.
Wachter is thrilled by the prospect of being considered for Ludden’s new ballet. “I’ve been working on my flexibility and performance quality this year, so performing in class in front of Ken, who I’ve never met before, will be really good for me,” she says. “Having the opportunity to potentially be invited to be part of his ballet is such a great opportunity.”
IBW, which is known for bringing top teachers to ballet students all over Australia and New Zealand, boasts a stellar faculty this summer, including guest teacher Crystal Wong, who has over 17 years of teaching experience in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Australia.
Tabitha Wachter in performance in Salzburg, Austria. Photo by SIBA, Nilli Glazer.
Wachter will soon get her chance to meet and learn from Ludden, Wong and the rest of the IBW team, but until then, she’ll continue to juggle her intensive dancing training with study online.
“I have to be very structured to get everything done, but then I guess that’s just one of those sacrifices you have to make as a dancer!” she says. “I’d like to go to Europe once I’ve finished to audition for companies. I have a German passport, so I’m thinking I may end up there, but who knows. I’m really just interested to see where my dancing takes me!”
To find out more about the International Ballet Workshops Summer 2018, visit internationalballetworkshops.com.
By Grace Gassin of Dance Informa.
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