Olivia Paine
Originating from the NSW North Coast, Olivia started dancing with Karen Ireland Dance Centre, Lismore NSW. Olivia showed promise at a very young age, competing and winning at many competitions including Sydney Eisteddfod and also at the Alana Haines Awards in 2007 where she was both a finalist and scholarship recipient. Olivia became an ITP with the Australian Ballet School at age 10 and was offered a place in the full time school at age 13. Olivia began her full time training with the Australian Ballet School in 2009 in level 4. During her studies, Olivia was the recipient of the Australian Ballet School Scholarship of Excellence (Level 7), represented The Australian Ballet School in Canada, receiving the scholarship to spend time with Canada's National Ballet School, performed with the Australian Ballet Dancer’s Company in 2013 and was selected to understudy with the Australian Ballet. In 2014, Olivia won the prestigious Martin Bequest Scholarship for Ballet (Australia's largest cash ballet scholarshp). Following graduation, Olivia travelled throughout Europe, and was invited to take class with prestigious ballet companies from around the world before coming back to Melbourne to join Melbourne City Ballet. Olivia was promoted within a few months but unfortunately chronic injury and surgery meant Olivia had to give up her performing career earlier this year. Olivia is incredibly passionate about teaching and passing on her extensive experience and love of ballet to students of all ages. She feels very fortunate that so much knowledge has been shared with her by so many of her world class teachers and she is now in a position to pass this knowledge on to her own students.