Dunedin ballet dancer Jordan Mullin returned home yesterday after winning a place in the Royal Ballet School in London.
The former Kavanagh College pupil was one of only 15 dancers from 1000 international applicants to be admitted to the prestigious school for the 2011 year.
"I'm very excited and I can't wait to get back over there and start," she said yesterday.
"The audition was technically challenging, but enjoyable.
"The teachers expect so much more of you. The expectation is a lot higher.
"They're preparing you for a professional career."
Jordan has been dancing since she was 5 and left Dunedin when she was 13 to study at the Prudence Bowen Atelier School of Ballet, on Australia's Gold Coast.
"We couldn't have kept Jordan here in Dunedin and helped her realise her dream of becoming an international ballet dancer," her father, Gerard Mullin, said yesterday.
"But it's expensive.
"The fees and accommodation for the Royal Ballet School are around 30,000 a year, which is at least $60,000 and will probably be more like $80,000 a year.
"They can go through a pair of pointe shoes in a day, too, which go for about $100 a pop."
And the life of a ballerina is not all glamour.
Jordan rises at 5.30am for her days of dance and spends evenings studying by correspondence.
The successful audition caps off a remarkable year for the teenager, who beat more than 150 dancers to win an $18,000 scholarship in the Sydney Opera House in August and then achieved a 98% mark in her final Royal Academy of Dance exam in September.
Dunedin School of Ballet and Dance teacher Robyn Sinclair said of her former protege: "She deserves all the success that I'm sure will come her way."
