The darling of the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies still has to clean her bedroom
Barely an hour after giving a performance of a lifetime, tousle-haired Nikki Webster was curled up, fast asleep in her bed.
No late-night celebrations for this talented 13-year-old. Nikki needed her shut-eye, after all. There were chores to be done around her Croydon Park home in Sydney’s western suburbs.
“I had to clean my room and it’s my job to collect the dog droppings in the backyard,” she laughs. “I’ve also had to catch up with my studies, because I’ve been rather busy doing other things.”
Nikki is, of course, referring to her starring roles in the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. In the space of a few hours, in the opening ceremony, she became the most famous teen in the world – her Deep Sea Dreaming sequence with Djakapurra Manyarryun winning the hearts of four billion viewers around the globe.
Now, the bubbly youngster can’t go anywhere without people asking, “Are you the little girl who was in the opening ceremony? Can I have an autograph??
“I don’t think I’m a star,” she says, sitting on the couch, petting her dog Star, a poodle-maltese terrier cross. “I just love to sing and act. My brother Scott and I are always singing and dancing at home in front of Mum and Dad,” adds Nikki, who sometimes pretends to be her favourite singer Olivia Newton-John. “They get annoyed if we start up just before we’re about to sit down for dinner!”
Scott, 16 – who sang in the Millennium Jubilee – now has to live with being called “Nikki Webster’s brother”. “But I don’t mind one bit,” he says. “I’m really proud. I watched her on TV at a mate’s house and it was terrific. When the show was over, I rang her on Mum’s mobile to congratulate her.”
Their 43-year-old mother Tina is extremely proud of both children. “Nikki’s worked so hard and deserved this chance, but she’ll have to keep her feet on the ground. There’s a long way to go and a lot of hard work ahead,” she says.
Nikki has done countless interviews with the world’s media and her smiling face is to grace the cover of Paris-Match. “I loved being part of the ceremony – to act, sing and do acrobatics in front of so many people was fantastic,” she says.
But the real highlight, Nikki says, was to meet her idols Vanessa Amorosi, Tina Arena, Julie Anthony, John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John. “They were wonderful and encouraged me all the time. I was so happy to meet Olivia – she told me I would make it in showbiz, so that means a lot,” Nikki says.
Another highlight was performing with Aboriginal artists and learning about their traditions and culture. “It showed me we are all together in this world and it doesn’t matter what you look like or what nationality you are. That’s what was so great about it. It was a message of reconciliation we were sending in that segment.”
Who can forget the moment when Nikki wandered into the packed Olympic stadium, laid out a beach towel, daubed zinc cream on her face and fell asleep to be taken through Australian history?
Djakapurra became Nikki’s guide, the pair traveling hand in hand through an Aboriginal wonderland involving 1000 indigenous performers. “I met Djakapurra about six weeks before the ceremony and he was just so nice and gentle – I love him,” Nikki says. “And when they all performed… it was just heart-stopping,” she gasps.
“They were just amazing to watch.” I’m so impressed with Aboriginal music and dance that I would love to perform with them again. And Cathy Freeman lighting the cauldron was fantastic.”
Nikki’s already a seasoned performer, having made her debut at age four. She’s a year eight student at The McDonald College of Performing Arts in NSW, and has appeared in many musicals, including Cinderella, Aladdin and Les Miserables. She has starred in TV commercials, at many charity functions and was an extra in the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Nikki even sang with Michael Jackson on his HiSTORY tour of Australia – she met him after being trampled by fans at the opening of his 1997 film Ghosts.
“Michael invited me and my friends back to his hotel. We mucked around for two hours and had M&M fights, and he gave us each one of his jackets. When he heard we were performers, he listened to us sing and invited me to sing with him on stage. That was exciting,” Nikki says.
For the next few weeks, Nikki will be rehearsing her part in Annie, which opens on November 10 at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre. But Nikki admits that nothing can match the opening ceremony – the most watched TV event in history.
Even so, the dream is far from over. She;s turned in a second Olympic performance at the closing ceremony, and was undaunted by her famous co-stars, such as Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Barnes, Christine Anu, Paul Hogan, Slim Dusty and Yothu Yindi.
But how will anything top the past few weeks? “My dream now is to star in a film and make my own CD,” Nikki says. “It doesn’t matter what I do as long as I can perform. And I’d really like it if people of different races could get on together, just like Djakapurra and me.”
Story: Norm Lipson
Source: Woman’s Day
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