Drew Sheldrick

You can’t call starlet Nikki Webster and brother Scott’s new project anything but ambitious. Teaming up with your 20-something sibling to manage and develop a totally new dance school in the Inner-West was always going to be fraught with risk, if only in the sense that mixing business with family is always a fragile frontier.

But the lesser known of the two, Scott Webster, says it’s a risk they were willing to take for an initiative they’ve been keen to get off the ground for some time. “We understand there is going to be a lot of trial and error, but you just have to accept what is to come,” he says.”We’re just hoping that as people start to see how good the classes are we will start and build on numbers from there.”

Strathfield-based Webster has had an equally extensive background as his famous sister. The WAPPA graduate performed in musicals such as Les Miserables, Witches of Eastwick and Little Shop of Horrors as well as working behind the scenes on events like the Brewhaha Inner West Youth Week Festival and Strathfield Carols by Candlelight. After launching an entertainment contracting agency in 2006, specialising in child care with theatrical facilities across Australia, he thought himself ready to take on his ideal project.

“Nikki has a huge amount of experience in the industry, she’s been a child-star and we’re hoping that people will be keen to learn from her. But it will be a big effort on both our parts, I’ll be teaching half the classes till it gets off the ground,” he said.

Dance @ Nikki Webster will be located at Parramatta Road, Stanmore, and housed in a converted loft space currently under construction. Webster said it will focus on breeding young stars in singing, dance, drama and acrobatics but won’t neglect adult and more advanced students either.

“We’ll have classes for two-and-a-half year olds to adults and also advanced dancers. There aren’t a lot of places you can go these days that aren’t aimed at beginners. We want professional dancers to be able to come down and have a great class as well. We’re also hoping to appeal to Inner West residents who don’t want to travel a long way to take their kids to dance class,” he said.

One of Webster’s main aims is to get more boys into classes, especially as they are in heavy demand in the industry.

“Thanks to shows like So You Think You Can Dance and new styles like crumping and hip-hop, it’s far more acceptable for boys to dance these days. The hard part is just getting them in here to teach them the technique behind it all. Hopefully with the surge in popularity of these shows the stigma will start and disappear,” he said.

For information on classes and the launch date of Dance @ Nikki Webster visit www.dancenikkiwebster.com.au

Source: Inner West Courier