Girls flourish under Leticia's tuition | Art & Theatre

26th November 2008

Dance teacher Leticia Polinelli (centre) and students (back l-r) Emma McFarlane, Morgan Hill, Abby Chapman, Adrienne Whitehouse, Rachel Ward, Danika Lampitt, (front) Tahlia Lampitt, Courtney Macmillan and Lara McFarlane.

WHEN it comes to strike rates, Leticia Polinelli has one of near Bradman-esque proportions in the ballet world.

Leticia trains 10 girls full-time in the finer points of ballet at her private studio, En Pointe, at Moffat Beach. So far this year, nine girls have received offers to further their careers at prestigious ballet schools.

To top off those successes, 13-year-old Charlotte Willshire and 16-year-old Danika Lampitt have just successfully auditioned for the Australian Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Melbourne.

The girls are the only two Queenslanders to be accepted into the Bolshoi academy, which will train Australian dancers in the same style as the highly-regarded Russian ballet.

While Charlotte will leave home to take up the position, Danika will make the move with her mother and her sister, Tahlia, 13, who will take up one of the places at the Australian Ballet School.

It will be the first time the Lampitts have danced under anyone else's tuition since they began ballet lessons with Ms Polinelli in Cairns. The sisters have known no other teacher because when Leticia moved to the Sunshine Coast, the Lampitts followed.

“I've taught both of the girls since they were three,” Ms Polinelli said.

She took little credit for the remarkable success of all of her students, who dance with her full-time while completing their schooling by distance education.

“The whole idea of my school is to keep them close to home for just that little bit longer, so that they get that level of training. They are doing what they love every day.”

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