Collaroy-local, Roxie Syron, has been dancing since she was five years old, and now, at 21, she’s been accepted as a Russell Page Graduate in Australia’s leading indigenous performing arts company, Bangarra Dance Theatre. Roxie is a descendant of the Biripi and Worimi Nations of the Mid North Coast in NSW and grew up and still lives on the Northern Beaches.
“I feel over the moon, it’s been a dream of mine for so long,” she told Manly Observer.
“I would never have expected to be here. Ever since I started my secondment with Bangarra, I just knew this was the place I’d want to be at. Everyone has been so kind and when I watched the dancers perform The Light Inside, I just thought, I need to be in this company. The choreographers did such a great job of telling the story and I knew I wanted to be able to tell other people’s stories through dance and I just couldn’t think of a different company to be a part of.”
The Russell Page Graduate Program, initiated in 2015, provides opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance graduates or early career artists to develop as professional dancers through training and mentoring and being a member of the dancer ensemble for performances and touring seasons. Over 20 artists have gone through the program so far.
While Roxie primarily performs contemporary dance, she’s trained in all styles, from jazz to ballet to hip hop.
“As soon as I started dancing [at age five], I knew it was my calling,” she said.
“It’s about being able to perform on stage, to communicate through movement, and to move people to feel emotions through the performance.”
Roxie’s always dreamed of performing on stage for a living and in Year 9, dance became her full-time profession.
She first trained at Tanya Pearson Academy and Brent Street. She’s completing her second pre-professional year with Sydney Dance Company and her career highlights, besides the Russell Page Graduate Program, include the secondment with Bangarra, being a Nederlands Dans Theater invitee, performing in The Nutcracker with Sydney City Youth Ballet, choreographic works with Lucas Jervis, and being part of the Locreado Contemporary Company tour.
While Roxie explained the hardest part of her career has to be the physical demands of rehearsals and performances, being allowed to tell Indigenous stories and represent her culture is “such a blessing”.
So, what happens when you’ve achieved your dreams at the young age of 21?
“For me, my next goal is to be in an overseas company which will be awhile away but, really, as long as I get to keep dancing, I never want to stop”, she said.
For anyone reading this and wanting to follow in Roxie’s footsteps, her advice?
“Never give up,” she said.
“If someone doesn’t want you, it’s not because of your ability, it’s solely because that just wasn’t your time to shine and while it might seem tough now, it’ll all be worth it, and you will end up in the place that’s right for you.”
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