Alice Topp
Corps de ballet
I started learning ballet in Bendigo when I was four years old. When I was thirteen years old I danced with an orchestra and it was then that I knew that I wanted to be a ballet dancer.

What I love most about ballet is the magic of getting completely lost in the movement. I feel as though time stands still and then when I hear the different musical sounds it propels me into the steps and mood of a dance. I also love the feeling of being lifted high into the air by my dance partner in pas de deux. At first it was scary but once I have practised the various movements with my partner I am confident to dance the lifted poses and movements.

Probably the only thing I don’t like about doing ballet are the blisters and the black toenails I get from wearing pointe shoes! I performed with the Royal New Zealand ballet for two and a half years. In 2007 I joined The Australian Ballet as a dancer in the corps de ballet. This is a dream come true for me!

Simone Pulga
Corps de ballet
I was born and raised in Italy and the first time I got involved with ballet was by mistake! I was about ten years old and wanted to be a movie director like Steven Spielberg. I thought I was enrolling in a theatre school, but it was a ballet school! On the first day I found myself in a big room with twenty boys and girls wearing what I thought were very funny clothes. The ballet teacher came in and we all started our very first ballet class. I have not stopped dancing since that day.

Dancing has taught me to experience a range of emotions, whether good or bad. I remember the anxiety before my first show, the happiness afterwards, the frustration when I don’t know how to do a step and the sense of achievement when I finally get something right, the sadness of leaving home and the excitement of seeing new places. I remember those places I’ve seen because I am a dancer – the colour of London, the sky of Madrid, the buildings of Tokyo, and the first time in a yellow cab in New York.

I often wonder if I would have become a ballet dancer if I had paid more attention to the sign when I was a young boy. Now, that I am a professional ballet dancer I think it was meant to happen.

Simone joined The Australian Ballet in January 2007