ANGELIQUE Kelly is one of Young’s talented teenagers many know little about.
Angie, as she is known to her family and friends, is the daughter of local couple John and Karly Kelly of Young. It is from Karly, that Angie developed her love for dancing.
Karly, a Highland dance teacher has been taking Angie to dance lessons since she was 5 and she started competing at 6.
Angie heard about The OzScot Highland Dancing Academy and expressed her dream to one day be a part of it and dance with The OzScots Australia Team at the Edinburgh Tattoo in Scotland – that dream is now reality.
Angie danced with the The OzScot Australian team at the Edinburgh Tattoo in August this year.
This trip to Scotland was not a first with Angie participating in the Commonwealth Championships and the Scottish Championships in 2004.
Angie’s dedication to dance saw her travel to Bathurst twice a week to dance under the guidance of Cheryl and Amy Roach, directors of OzScot Australia.
In 2005 Angie was given a dance scholarship at The Scots School in Bathurst, which also enabled her to attend the OzScots Highland Dance Academy on a more regular basis and reduce the amount of travelling she was doing.
At only 11 and entering year 6, Angie was the youngest and the only female boarder in her year at Scots for the first three years of boarding.
While all other dancers had the luxury of having their parents to drop them off and pick them up, Angie aged 11 was organising her own taxis to and from dance lessons each day.
On weekends, if Angie didn’t travel back to Young she would participate in various competitions around the country and by the age of 12 she had competed in every state in Australia and had placed in NSW, TAS, WA, ACT and SA championships.
In 2008 at only 14, Young Shire Council gave Angie a Young Mayoral scholarship grant to assist in covering costs of travelling to perform with the The OzScot Australia team in the Virginia Military Tattoo in the USA and then later the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo in Canada.
This year Angie was selected for the Basel Tattoo in Switzerland however when training she tore the ligaments in her ankle, which meant she could only watch from the sidelines. With intense physiotherapy Angie was able to go on and perform at the Edinburgh Tattoo.
Karly Kelly said it was Angie’s passion and drive to perform in front of an audience that drove Angie most.
“It’s a lot of hard work that goes into making a Tattoo spectacular with long hours especially on performance days but it’s a sense of achievement and accomplishment and knowing that her friends and family are very proud of her that enables her to continue to be disciplined and to keep striving towards the next goal,” Mrs Kelly said.
In recognition of Angie’s hometown, some of the members from the OzScots Highland Dance Academy will be performing at the Cherry Festival in Lovell Street on December 5.
Angie will also dance at the Cherry Festival Highland Dancing Competition at the PCYC on December 6. Angie helps coordinate this event an convinces her friends to come to Young.
This year’s competition has already attracted entries from Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria with the judges coming from as far as north Queensland and $5000 in prize money to be won.
The most exciting part of Angie’s dancing career so far is the opportunity to perform in front of her family and friends and an ‘Aussie crowd’.
“Angie was ecstatic to receive her contract stating that she had been selected to dance with the OzScot Australia Team at The Edinburgh Military Tattoo to be held in Sydney in February 2010.
Under the direction of Dance Director Cheryl Roach OAM and Assistant Director Amy Roach, Angie Kelly will dance with the team in 5 performances commencing 4th February”, Mrs Kelly said.
After dancing, Angie hopes to have a career in physiotherapy. Pushing her body to do the things it does, and probably was not meant to do, has seen her incur many injuries.
She is able to understand and appreciate the importance a physiotherapist plays, not only of dancers, but with people from all walks of life.
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