A TEENAGE ballet dancer from Newport is set to dance at a major competition in the USA.
Charlie-Beth Smith was selected to represent Great Britain at the Cecchetti International Classical Ballet Competition in Michigan this July after attending a selection event in Birmingham in February, where she was the only dancer selected who isn’t currently a vocational ballet student.
The 15-year-old’s parents, Emma and Gavin Smith, said her teachers were contacted by the Cecchetti society in January when they discovered that she was eligible for the competition that only takes place every three years.
The selection process in Birmingham included her performing choreographies taught to her on the day. Due to Charlie-Beth’s age, she will need to bring a chaperone to the competition, and the family has set up a gofundme page to help towards the costs of Charlie-Beth and her mum’s flights and accommodation, which adds up to over £5,000 after the £2,000 bursary from the Cecchetti Trust.
The gofundme has raise £710 out of the £3,000 goal. The youngster already travels to London every Saturday to attend the Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden, where she is the only Welsh girl who is a senior associate of the school and has been dancing since the age of seven with Children’s Ballet Wales.
Mum, Emma, said: “She fell in love straight away and was literally under the teacher’s feet, she couldn’t get enough.”
The Bassaleg School pupil has been supported in her ballet commitments as she has been allowed to take only five GCSE subjects so she can train on a pre professional program with Ballet Cymru.
Mrs Smith said Charlie-Beth and the family are grateful for the support from her ballet school and teachers. “She is excited to perform on an international stage and is honoured by having the opportunity to compete in such a prestigious competition”.
For the competition, she will be performing a classical solo, a contemporary solo, and will do unset choreographies that she’ll have to learn on the day.
The link for the gofundme is: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ballet-dreams-help-charliebethget-to-michigan
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