WHEN 13-year-old Nikki Webster left the stadium as the “Hero Girl” of the now famous ‘flying’ sequence of the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, she had no idea what impact this choreographed moment would play in her life. Although she had already begun her training as a singer and dancer and performed in Les Miserables, The Sound of Music, television commercials and a duet with Michael Jackson, it was the Olympics that threw her into the limelight.

Presumably Webster, like most wannabe young performers, dreamt of one day being a star, but to be handed an opportunity like the Olympics, with its stadium audience of 110, 000 and 3.7 billion global viewers, is good fortune beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings. The trick however, once the dust had settle and everybody moved on to the next Big Thing, was to harness the celebrity and use it, and not become yesterday’s news. As the old adage states: you are only as good as your last job.

After the Olympics Webster was invited to travel all over the world to recreate her role. Then Gordon Frost offered her Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, which ran for 14 months. She also launched a singing career, a clothes range and a make-up line – all before she was eighteen. In 2005, when some might have presumed Webster had fallen into the “former child star” vortex, she came back as a near adult on Channel 7’s Dancing with the Stars, reminding us that she was coming of age and also not afraid to work hard to justify her place in the competition. Her involvement in this show, and some very sassy costume choices, garnered a lot of attention and told us that she was not just multi-skilled but determined to evolve.

This year she can add entrepreneur to her resume. She has opened a peforming arts studio, Dance @ Nikki Webster, with her brother Scott, who is also a music theatre performer. The studio is in Sydney’s Strathfield. Although Webster will not personally be teaching she will oversee the school’s peration with a view to offering young hopefuls the chance to follow their dreams by offering classes with some of the best teachers available in music theatre, ballet, hip hop, tap, singing, drama and acrobatics.

Source: Dance Australia April/May 2008
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