A STUDENT from Chisholm College at Cornubia, south of Brisbane, has scored a place in one of Germany’s top ballet schools, the Ballet Academy Munich.
Maughan Jemesen won a two-year Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung scholarship, named after a German dancer who died of bone cancer aged 28, to study at the Ballet Academy, part of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich.
She was one of 15 students from around the world accepted into the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung each year.
The Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung foundation subsidises living expenses in a specially designed house for ballet students.
Maughan took up ballet at the Beverley Parker Academy of Dance in Brisbane at the age of four and undertook her first ballet exam in 1996, aged six.
She travelled to Germany with her dance teacher last year, performing with some of the ballet companies there, and the experience strengthened her desire to be a professional ballerina.
While in Europe she was offered places in several ballet schools, but was unable to take up the offers as she was only 15 at the time.
When she turned 16 in February, Maughan sent a training video to the schools she had visited and to the Ballet Academy Munich.
She said she was looking forward to experiencing life and culture in another country and learning the language.
She was also looking forward to having dance as her main educational focus.
Principal Neville Feeney said the Year 11 students at Chisholm were sad to farewell their classmate, but were delighted at her success in winning the prestigious scholarship.
