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HANNAH Chung is just 16 but, unlike most of the girls her age, she has little time for shopping and catching up with friends.
Instead, the Epping ballerina spends her time preparing for a career as a dancer.
She was the only Asian in last weekend’s final of the McDonald’s Ballet Scholarship, the most valuable and prestigious award available to aspiring classical dancers in the southern hemisphere.
And, although she did not win, she earned the right to fulfil a long-cherished dream by dancing solo on the stage at Sydney Opera House.
Next month she will begin training at The Royal Ballet School in London.
The judges of the weekend contest praised the high standard of this year’s entrants and Hannah’s parents said at the after-party that they were very proud of her and appreciated all she had gained through the competition.
It has been a long journey already.
Even Hannah’s “casual time” is related to ballet.
“I go home. I listen to music and relax. But I like to go on YouTube searching different dancers around and learning from them,” she said.
She has no hobbies but loves reading.
“I read biographies; I find these people’s lives so interesting - how they get to the top and their journey through whatever they had to overcome to become who they are.
“For example Irina Baronova, the Russian ballerina, it really inspiring.”
And Hannah is pursuing her own dream, which is to get a contract with the Royal Ballet in London.
“I think it’s important to be really positive and to have that confidence to know you can do it,” she said.
“Sometimes your body is just exhausted, you are emotionally drained and you think ‘oh, I can’t do this any more’, but you get up next day, you go to class, you keep doing what you do,” she said
“I can’t imagine myself living a normal life without ballet.
“It’s just a part of me now I think. So much joy.”
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