No one was more surprised than Shayarne Matheson when she was announced as the winner of the Alana Haines Awards, held over the Easter weekend in Auckland, New Zealand. Having spent most of the previous year struggling with chronic glandular fever, she expected to spend the first part of this year just getting back into training. “I hadn’t expected anything like this!” she says of her win.
Eighteen-year-old Shayarne was chosen as the “Supreme” winner, winning NZ cash prize of $11,000 plus the offer of a full-time scholarship to the graduate class of the Royal Ballet School in London.
A total of 215 dancers aged 11 to 21 years, including 130 from Australia, took part in the awards, which are divided into two age groups: Junior Scholars and Supreme Awards (Groups A and B). Shayarne performed Gamzatti’s variation from La Bayadere and a contemporary solo by Olivia Ansell to seal her win.
Shayarne has been dancing since the age of three, when her mother put her into dance classes because she was “being a nuisance at creche”. As she became more serious about her studies, she trained with Joanne Simms and at the McDonald College until about age 15, then with the Tanya Pearson Coaching Academy as well as, most recently, with Vicki Attard at Academy Ballet in Alexandria.
Shayarne starts at the Royal Ballet School in September. In the meantime, she is preparing to compete in the McDonald’s Ballet Scholarships on July 31. A win would be nice -- living in London is expensive and Shayarne’s mum is single and has two other children to feed. The McDonald’s Ballet Scholarship Outright Winner receives a total of $18,000 while the 2nd Scholarship is worth $12,000. But no doubt there are many other very talented competitors with their eyes on the prize.
Alana Haines Award winner Shayarne Matherson.