Today interview

DAVID CAMPBELL: Now, the Olympic Games are well and truly underway. One person who got into the spirit of the opening ceremony over the weekend was one Nikki Webster!

SONIA KRUGER: That’s right, Nikki was just thirteen years old when she was hand-picked to headline proceedings at the Sydney games in 2000, and she joins us now. Good morning to you!

NIKKI WEBSTER: Good morning!

DAVID: Hi!

SONIA: Nikki that is one heck of a phone call to get, isn’t it?

NIKKI: It was! It was a whole audition process. So the audition came up, I went for it, it was months and months of audition, elimination process. I reckon if the reality TV was around back then, it would’ve been a reality show. But it was quite cut-throat. It was intense. And then it was a lot of preparation going into the opening ceremony, but for me, not as much as everybody else that was involved. The directors, the producers, everybody that was doing all the different segments had been working on it for years, and then I was lucky enough to get this role and play the Hero Girl, and bring all the sections together and help create the opening ceremony. So, huge honor.

DAVID: Can we get that photo up again? ‘Cause it’s just adorable. Look at you here. I mean, you’re so… look at you there!

NIKKI: Aww, look at me! Look at me with the pink bows! [laughs]

DAVID: On the weekend I read somewhere that you said that this made you grow up really fast, what did you mean by that?

NIKKI: Um, I think it just… What I meant by that was I was kind of thrown into the limelight. Yes I had been in musical theatre and I’d been in the industry, but not to the extent of what the Olympics catapulted me into, around the world, and it’s nothing that I was prepared for. There was no child star in Australia that had kind of gone through the same process. So I was learning just as everybody else in my team was learning along the way and on the journey, I had to learn it as well, and I also had to make sure that I was being honest about who I was as a child. ‘Cause I was very young and innocent, and you know, that was my upbringing, and very homely, so I wanted to make sure that I stayed the same and didn’t get wrapped up in it. So that’s what I meant by growing up – not in a bad way, I mean it was fantastic. I got to travel the world, I made music, clothing range, makeup – I got to do everything, every little girl’s dream, I got to live out. So it was incredible.

SONIA: You got to meet some amazing people, too, at the Olympics, including your idol, Kylie Minogue.

NIKKI: Kylie, yes.

SONIA: Did she give you any words of wisdom?

NIKKI: She was a huge inspiration to me at that time of the Olympics, we did the bridge climb together, and we had a great connection. So she was really by my side throughout that first couple of years of my career – on the phone, we met at different times, I went and saw her in London get ready for her tour, and just really kind of giving me an open eye to what this industry can be like and where you can take it if you work hard.

SONIA: Yeah, yeah.

DAVID: You’ve been in showbiz since you were how old?

NIKKI: Well, five and a half, actually, doing Aladdin, a pantomime, and then I did lots of musical theatre and was lucky enough to work alongside you, in Les Mis.

DAVID: We did Les Mis. She was nine.

SONIA: I didn’t know you did that together!

NIKKI: I was Little Cosette, and I think I had a big crush on David. [laughs]

DAVID: No!

SONIA: You were only about 41 then, weren’t you?

DAVID: I was really young.

NIKKI: Very young. We used to play in the dressing room, we used to play board games, remember? When we had scenes that weren’t on. So I’ve been lucky enough to do some incredible things.

DAVID: Michael Jackson, you worked with Michael Jackson on the HIStory Tour.

NIKKI: I did!

DAVID: What was that, what were you doing on that tour?

NIKKI: So I met him, when he had his movie [premiere], and then we all kinda got trampled on by a lot of fans, and we went back to his hotel room, and then he asked me to come up and sing with him, Heal The World, on stage, and he gave me a jacket of his that says “Especially made for Michael Jackson”. So incredible, and I actually got told that he remembered me, by a mutual friend of ours, when he saw me do the Olympics, he remembered meeting me.

SONIA: What was he like? What were your impressions of him?

NIKKI: I absolutely adored him. He was such an honest artist. Of course being kids we asked him to do the moonwalk for us; that’s what you do.

DAVID: Did he do it?

NIKKI: No! He actually said, “You’ll have to wait until you see me on stage because I’m really shy,” as in just in front of people, but get me on stage and that’s where I come to life. And I kind of relate to that ’cause I guess I’m a little bit the same. On stage I feel at home, and one-on -one I get a little bit nervous and shy.

DAVID: What about like… People don’t know that you actually moved to the States for a while. Why did you do that? Was it just too much here after all that Strawberry Kisses and all of the Olympics and everything?

NIKKI: Yeah, I think it’s about growing up. I was 18, I was like, “I need to find out who I am,” who Nikki is. There was a lot of management, a lot of people trying to dictate, you know, me doing the sexy thing, me doing – whatever it was, where my next career was gonna be. So I said to mum and dad, “I’m off! I’m going to L.A.” And I wrote music for the first time and went to Nashville, spent time in Nashville, which I love, and met incredible people that knew of “Nikki Webster” but didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas of me. It was pretty awesome. I grew up very quick and I got very homesick, ’cause I’m an Aussie girl at heart, so I came home pretty quick!

SONIA: And you now have a gorgeous two-year-old daughter, Skylah.

NIKKI: I do, yes.

SONIA: So does she know about mummy’s amazing career?

NIKKI: Well she does know Strawberry Kisses, and that’s from my dance studios, ’cause the kids do it. So she knows Strawberry Kisses and she can pick me out in pictures. I guess I’m waiting for the right time to sit down with her and show her the Olympics where she can really understand it, and things like that. I mean she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, she’s incredible and I enjoy every moment with her.

SONIA: Look at how gorgeous that bubba is.

NIKKI: She’s cheeky as!

SONIA: Is she? Bit like mummy.

NIKKI: Yeah. Loves the stage.

DAVID: We’re just proud of how well you’ve turned out. I don’t mean that as… I am older than you, I’ve known you since you were nine and I’ve always admired how well you’ve handled yourself and you still do, and you’re such a great example for people out there that you can get through the industry and be fine.

NIKKI: Yeah! It is a tough industry but it’s also an incredible industry. There are so many different avenues you that can take – radio, TV and movies – and I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of it, and will continue to. I want to get back into musical theatre and more acting, and also music.

DAVID: It’s a shame you’ve lost your drive.

NIKKI: [laughs] No, I’m very driven!

SONIA: Thank you so much, Nikki.

DAVID: You can check out Nikki’s performing arts studios in Sydney, visit dancenikkiwebster.com.au.

Sydney Catholic teacher’s place in Olympic history

By Sharyn McCowen

Nikki Webster performs at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Photo: Craig Golding, Fairfax Syndication

Nikki Webster performs at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Photo: Craig Golding, Fairfax Syndication

Every four years, St John Bosco College teacher Maria Millward is reminded of her Olympic success.

She didn’t win a medal, break a record or represent her country in the pool, track or field.

But her work was witnessed by an estimated 3.6 billion people around the world as part of the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Maria, together with her brother Damien Halloran, composed Under Southern Skies, which went on to become one of Nikki Webster’s iconic performances of the opening ceremony.

The Engadine English teacher drew on her Catholic faith, the Australian landscape, Indigenous cultures, and the potential of young people in crafting what she calls a “deeply spiritual song”.

“When I wrote it I wanted to incorporate the idea of the connection with the land, and the Indigenous perspective,” she said.

“There is a line that says, ‘There is a great spirit rising from the desert to the sea’, and that is very meaningful.

“For me, the Olympics represents a time when everyone comes together. No matter where you are in the world, people come together to celebrate opportunities for peace.

“It was written with a focus on young people, how young people are the future.”

Maria enlisted members of the Bosco choir to record a demo of the song, which was selected from more than 4000 submissions.

“We were very excited,” she said. “I was especially excited for students and the community, who had put so much into supporting it.”

“It goes to show that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things.”

While most of her current students weren’t born when Sydney hosted the Olympics, one member of the choir which recorded the demo has since joined Maria in the English department at St John Bosco College.

With every new opening ceremony, Maria is reminded of her little place in Olympic history.

“It’s always exciting, and it always brings back that joy,” she said.

She has been following Australia’s success in Rio, and took time out from marking to watch 18-year-old Kyle Chalmers win gold in the 100m freestyle in his maiden Olympics.

“That was inspiring,” she said.

“I really feel that with young people that their lives are so full of potential, and we need to empower them to believe that they can make a difference in the world.

“That’s what the song was about.”

Source: catholicweekly.com.au

Rio Olympics 2016: What happened to Sydney 2000 star Nikki Webster?

By Rose Donohoe

As a skinny 13-year-old, she captivated the world as the star of the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies – but Nikki Webster has been off the radar of most Australians in the decade since.

Belting out the patriotic ‘Under These Southern Skies’ in a pink sundress and blonde curls, Webster became every young girl’s hero when she flew 25 metres above Homebush Stadium and journeyed from the Dreamtime to modern day Australia with local icons Kylie Minogue, Yothu Yindi and Midnight Oil.

Sure, they had model Gisele Bündchen stomp the runway, but watching Rio’s effort last week, it was clear their opening ceremony would not produce a Nikki Webster.

But like so many child stars before (and after) her, Webster’s rise to fame was ultimately unsustainable.

Now 29, the mother-of-one and dance school owner boasts a resume that includes everything from a controversial appearance on Dancing With the Stars, a duet with Michael Jackson and a misdirected men’s magazine cover shoot.

“There were a lot people trying to dictate me doing the sexy thing … so I said to mum and dad, ‘I’m off’,” Webster told Today Extra on Monday.

‘She needed to be fearless’

In his book Master of the Ceremonies, director Ric Birch wrote that the decision to choose Webster in 2000 was unanimous.

“She epitomised young Australia – frank, friendly and fearless, an innocent on the edge of greatness,” he said.

When the crop of 2000 Olympic hopefuls was whittled down to a final four, it was clear Webster – who had already starred in stage productions of Les Miserables and The Sound of Music – had a unique advantage over the other girls.

“Some of them just weren’t keen at all about being suspended 35–40 metres above an arena with no net and on one single line, and which was quite safe, but scary,” choreographer David Atkins said.

‘So many beautiful memories’

Webster holds happy memories from her time in the spotlight, posting a message on Instagram last week in which she expressed her joy.

“Feeling very nostalgic and emotional today, remembering 16 years ago I was lucky enough to play the hero girl in the incredible Sydney 2000 Olympic opening ceremony,” she wrote.

“Thank you David Atkins and Ric Birch for believing in me and allowing me to play this beautiful role and bring your vision to the world. What a huge honor [sic].

“So many beautiful memories of everyone I got to work with and meet during the Olympics.

“I am so blessed to have an amazing career following my dreams and working in the entertainment industry – making music, and running performing arts studios teaching the young stars of tomorrow in my beautiful country.

“So proud to be an Aussie and so excited to watch our athletes bring home the medals.”

Post-Olympics and ‘Strawberry Kisses’

In the afterglow of Sydney 2000, Webster was signed to record label BMG Music and immediately produced a hit.

The sickly sweet and undeniably catchy ‘Strawberry Kisses’ shot to number two on the ARIA charts, playing on Webster’s status as a cutesy tween idol.

But five albums later, the singer still hadn’t come close to matching the success of ‘Strawberry Kisses’ and had unwittingly become a national punchline – something she blamed on tall poppy syndrome.

Trying to dismantle her pre-teen image, by 19 Webster had starred on not one but two men’s magazine covers.

“I need something to shock people a little bit,” she said at the time.

But the racy shoots did little to reinvent Webster’s image – so inextricably tied to the little girl in the pink dress.

“It was quite dark and I think that’s why I went to LA, because I thought ‘I need to do this by myself’,” she told The Daily Telegraph last year.

Returning to Australia in 2005, Webster still couldn’t catch a break, criticised as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars for having an “unfair advantage” due to her dance training growing up.

The media storm culminated in judge Todd McKenney giving Webster a paltry 1/10 for her routine and embarrassing her on national television.

Since then, Webster’s life appears much more settled.

The singer opened the first of her Nikki Webster-branded talent studios in 2010 with her brother Scott.

She’s also a mother her two-year-old daughter, Skylah, with husband Matthew McMah, who works in aviation.

Source: thenewdaily.com.au

Nikki Webster: ‘Fame made me grow a thick skin’

Can you believe it’s been 16 years since she won our hearts at the Sydney Olympics?

Jennifer Fletcher

It’s been 16 years since Nikki Webster won us over with her amazing performance at the Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony back in 2000.

But speaking ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics to the Daily Mail, the 29-year-old says that he time in the spotlight made her “grow up a lot quicker.”

“It was an amazing experience and journey for me and continues to be because it was such an amazing moment for our country… being Australian and being able to represent my country,” she reveals.

And speaking of the backlash the now mum-of-one faced after her public profile grew, she says it made her become “thick skinned.”

When Nikki turned 18 she celebrated by stripping down for the covers of men’s magazines FHM and Zoo.

“It made me grow a thick skin. It made me grow up a lot quicker in terms of I knew what I wanted, and what I wanted was to prove a lot of people wrong.

“I guess it gave me a lot of life experience,” she added. “I’m not angry at anyone for it, it is what it is and it happens to a lot of people in this country.”

Now Nikki is a mum to her two-and-half-year-old daughter Skylah, and is a dance teacher.

Source: Yahoo

Nikki Webster all grown up 16 years after Sydney Olympics appearance

She captured hearts across the globe back in 2000, when she took centre stage at the Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony.

And 16 years later Nikki Webster says she’s enjoying life away from the spotlight, but will always cherish the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that catapulted her to fame at the age of 13.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics, which kicks off this weekend, the now 29-year-old mother-of-one and dance teacher admitted stardom ‘made me grow up a lot quicker’, though ‘it wasn’t [necessarily] a bad way to grow up’.

‘It was an amazing experience and journey for me and continues to be because it was such an amazing moment for our country… being Australian and being able to represent my country,’ she said.

Back in 2000, the then teenager hovered above Sydney’s Olympic Stadium while belting out the patriotic, Under The Southern Skies.

Wearing a pink summer dress and her golden hair tied with pink ribbons, she looked every inch the innocent star on the rise.

But as her public profile grew, so did the criticism surrounding her.

‘It made me grow a thick skin. It made me grow up a lot quicker in terms of I knew what I wanted, and what I wanted was to prove a lot of people wrong,’ she explained.

Following the 2000 Olympics, Nikki signed on with BMG records, with her subsequent first single Strawberry Kisses reaching the second spot in Australian music charts in 2001.

She then went on to star on Channel Seven’s Dancing With The Stars, which led to her finding love with dance partner Sasha Farber.

But despite her professional arts training, which began well before the 2000 Olympics, the bubbly personality was given a dismal one out of ten for one of her dances by judge Todd McKenney, which fans argued was utterly unreasonable.

‘I guess it gave me a lot of life experience. I’m not angry at anyone for it, it is what it is and it happens to a lot of people in this country unfortunately,’ she told Daily Mail Australia, addressing the criticism she faced at such a young age.

The negativity certainly got the better of her by 2006, as she had relocated to the US to pursue a showbusiness career abroad.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in September last year, Nikki said: ‘I was the punch line of everyone’s joke and I was just a kid.’

‘It was quite dark and I think that’s why I went to LA, because I thought “I need to do this by myself”,’ she admitted.

‘I did question whether I wanted to come back as an artist here at all.’

Nikki also felt pressured by the public to remain as the little girl who graced the Olympic stage.

‘At some point as a young girl when you finish school, you don’t know what you want,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

Upon turning 18 she decided to celebrate the milestone birthday by stripping down for the covers of men’s magazines FHM and Zoo.

Ditching her curly locks for a straightened, platinum blonde mane, the singer was seen provocatively posing in a tiny yellow bikini on the cover of Zoo.

Meanwhile when posing for FHM, she wore a black mesh one-piece and mini hot pants as the caption read: ‘Nikki Webster. Look who’s turned 18! But it’s you, dear reader, getting the goodies…’

She was subsequently voted seventh in the FHM Australia 100 Sexiest Women 2005 list.

Claiming she’s ‘not the kind of person who lives with regrets’, Nikki says there’s nothing she would change about her racy magazine spreads.

‘They’re beauty shots to me. They’re glamorous,’ she said.

‘It’s just we do it [growing up] publicly and hopefully we do it as respectfully as possible because at the end of the day, I know my daughter’s going to find these photos at one point so I want to be respectful.’

‘It’s a journey being a teenager. It’s about being a young woman,’ she continued.

‘It’s about exploring things and having fun – you get boobs and you get a body and everything changes. Some want you to grow up and others don’t.

‘You can’t impress everybody, I think you’ve just got to be true to who you are and not get caught up in the whole transformation of character which is a hard thing I think.’

Meanwhile, it’s been 11 years since those racy magazine covers themselves, and Nikki has done even more ‘growing up’ since then, entering a new chapter in her life – motherhood.

‘I suppose I’m a regular mum,’ she candidly confessed, no doubt enjoying raising her daughter Skylah, born in February 2014.

‘At times I’m at home and I do regular mum things and at other times I’m at work and at other times I get to do fun things like perform, get up on stage and do interviews. So I have three areas of my life, it’s all very different.’

No doubt looking forward to showing her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter her famous Olympics performance from over a decade ago, Nikki said: ‘She can differentiate between the old posters of me that are stuck up in my studios and she knows that’s mummy’.

‘It doesn’t matter how many years have passed, I remember exactly where I had to stand, exactly who was standing by me backstage. I remember every moment and it was so electric.

‘To sit down and watch the Olympics with her will be a pretty proud moment for me. To show her that you can work hard and fulfil your dreams and whatever she wants to do, to follow her passions and dreams and I will support it.’

Now running three performing arts studios with her brother – in Sydney’s Leichhardt, Minchinbury and New South Wales’ Central Coast – Nikki hopes she can inspire the next generation.

‘It made me very driven,’ she again touched on the criticism she faced.

She added: ‘And very driven with the dance studios to be able to create a place where the kids understand that sometimes even if they’re doing everything right, not everybody’s going to see that, and it’s not a personal attack, it is just what happens’.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Nikki Webster Just Turned 29 And We Feel So OLD

It was Nikki Websters 29th birthday yesterday and we cannot believe it has been a whole SIXTEEN years since her performance at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Nikki has played a massive part in Australian Pop Culture, her performance at the Olympics literally soared to new heights as she flew above the crowd in her pink dress and matching shoes. She then went on to launch Strawberry Kisses the tune that was the soundtrack to every Thirteen year old girls life( don’t deny it!).

Since then she has had a stint on Dancing with the Stars, posed for FHM and ZOO magazine and lauched another single back in 2009. These days the Strawberry Kissed singer is a happily married, mother of one and and a dance school owner!!

Happy Birthday Nikki, you sure have packed a lot into your 29 years!

Throw it back to 2001 with Strawberry Kisses below!

Source: seafm.com.au

What Actually Happened To Nikki Webster

Australia has gone through its share of pop culture punchlines. The joke du jour is currently Shannon Noll, who’s become the subject of countless memes and tongue-in-cheek campaigns.

It’s fun. We centre on a target seemingly arbitrarily — usually some disposable piece of Australian cultural detritus — and have a collective chuckle before discarding the subject entirely.

Indeed, it’s pretty easy to forget there’s an actual person behind the memes and jabs. Sure, Nollsy seems to be in on the joke, but it’s harder for a teenage girl to take things in stride.

Nikki Webster experienced this phenomenon first hand. The Sydney native was catapulted into national attention at the tender age of 13 when she performed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Dressed in a summer dress, with pink ribbons tying back her strawberry blonde locks, the entire world’s attention was on Nikki as she flew high above the Olympic stadium crowd.

It was an apt metaphor for the young singer, who was chosen out of 500 other young girls to perform at the Olympics. Webster capitalised on her Olympics stardom with a debut single.

‘Strawberry Kisses’ entered the charts at number two and stayed there for seven weeks. Meanwhile, Webster’s profile as Australia’s sweetheart rose and she became a household name.

But the child star, who’s now 28 years old, recently revealed that her post-‘Strawberry Kisses’ life was a “dark” period that left her confused and wanting to escape Australia altogether.

“I was the punch line of everyone’s joke and I was just a kid,” Webster told The Daily Telegraph. The singer moved to LA to escape harassers and negative attention in her homeland.

As she contemplated staying in LA to work on a legitimate music career on her own terms, Webster was being told to “be like Britney” and the harsh spotlight became her “norm”.

“People were telling me how I needed to change my career and break through like Britney and change my image and I was thinking, ‘is this me?’. It was confusing,” she told the Tele.

“I was just this young naïve artist trying to make a go and work hard. I’d worked damn hard and I wasn’t getting the reception, I couldn’t understand it.”

“It was quite dark and I think that’s why I went to LA, because I thought ‘I need to do this by myself’. I did question whether I wanted to come back as an artist here at all.”

Webster’s subsequent releases did not meet the expectations set by ‘Strawberry Kisses’, though it didn’t stop her label from releasing The Best of Nikki Webster a mere three years after her debut.

The singer’s popularity quickly waned as the decade rolled on and an appearance on Dancing With The Stars in 2005 saw her copping more flak for having an unfair advantage over other contestants.

The same year, a now-18-year-old Webster appeared on the cover of FHM and Zoo magazines and returned to music with a new, sexed-up image in 2009 with the song ‘Devilicious’.

That single, which indeed saw Webster attempting a Britney-like salacious reinvention, came and went quickly and Webster resigned herself to working behind the scenes of the entertainment industry.

Webster is now mother to a baby girl and recently opened a new performing arts studio in Minchinbury, in addition to her Dance @ Nikki Webster studios in Leichhardt and on the Central Coast.

According to the former child star, she never expected the harsh judgement she received after she shot to fame and reckons it’s just another case of the Australian Tall Poppy Syndrome.

Source: tonedeaf.com.au

The Dance @ Nikki Webster studio launches in Minchinbury

By Katrina Vo

Not one to shy away from the spotlight, Nikki Webster cemented her place in the hearts of Australians during her appearance at the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening ceremony.

She is now sharing her talents with Sydney by opening a performing arts school in Minchinbury, at 16/43 Sterling Road.

The Dance @ Nikki Webster studio will offer a training ground for up-and-coming stars and will provide them with the opportunity to learn from talented choreographers and world class teachers.

Ms Webster and her dance school co-founder and brother Scott Webster already have dance studios in Leichhardt and Erina.

“I am over the moon about opening a western Sydney studio as we have had our inner-west school for almost 10 years now,” she said.

“We have so many wonderful students at our Leichhardt and at our Erina studio locations so it was only natural that when the chance for a new studio arose, we jumped at the opportunity.”

The Minchinbury dance school opened last Saturday, January 23.

Potential students got the chance to try classes for free all day before deciding to register for the 2016 dance year.

Ms Webster said the open day had something for everyone, no matter their age or experience level.

“We had classes for tiny tots from 18 months old to seniors up to 17 and with specialised and experienced teachers, our students are in great hands,” she said.

“Scott and I are so humbled to be able to offer local western Sydney kids and teens a nurturing environment that promotes growth and development and I can’t wait to share my knowledge and experience with new local families.”

The Dance @ Nikki Webster Minchinbury studio will offer classes including jazz, tap, RAD ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, acrobatics, silks, drama, musical theatre and singing.

Visit: dancenikkiwebster.com.au or phone 0411 861 849.

Source: St Marys-Mt Druitt Star

Australia’s sweetheart Nikki Webster to open performing arts studio in Minchinbury

Australia’s own sweetheart, Nikki Webster, is kicking off 2016 by opening a new performing arts studio in Minchinbury.

By Jillian McKee

The Strawberry Kisses singer first captured Australians’ hearts when she was cast as the main performer at the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening ceremony.

Since then Webster has opened Dance @ Nikki Webster studios in Leichhardt and on the Central Coast, which have been very successful. She promises the Minchinbury location is set to be even better.

Webster told The Standard her team had been on the hunt for a new studio for a while.

“We were on the hunt for a while for this space; we wanted to see what we could bring to the area,” she said.

“There is so much talent out in western Sydney and we want to use our expertise to help these kids.”

The Minchinbury studio is a joint venture between Nikki and her brother, Scott, who is also from a performing arts background.

“We are a family-run business and the Minchinbury area is very family orientated with great families and great kids … we were so excited­ about finding the space and working with the kids out west,” Webster said.

The studio will have classes for children aged from 18 months up to 17 and will teach a range of dance styles from ballet to hip-hop.

“I will be teaching singing while my brother teaches all styles of dance, from jazz, hip-hop, and contemporary. We will also teach acrobatics, cheerleading musical theatre,” Webster said.

The Minchinbury studio will be holding a free open day at 8.30am on Saturday at 16/42 Sterling Rd, Minchinbury.

“People can come and meet us, see the studio and have a chat,” Ms Webster said.

“We will have tasters of each dance style … children can try if they are unsure.

“We have had quite a few people sign up already which is very flattering; we love the space and we are very excited. … we have lots of plans and we just want to get started.”

Source: The Daily Telegraph