Six days a week teenagers Isabel Martin, Hunter Cranfield, Mia Cohen and Priya White spend hours after school in Wanaka, perfecting their pirouette at Pointe Central ballet studio.
For Isabel and Priya the passion for ballet started at a young age when they were in "baby ballet classes".
As well as training in Wanaka, Isabel travels to Wellington twice a term to train with the New Zealand School of Dance, as a part of the national scholars programme.
"I think some people think it’s really easy and that ballet’s just something people do. It’s actually really hard, and takes dedication to do well at it," she said.
Priya also travels outside the region for further training.
"I’m part of the national coaching programme at the Anneliese Gilberd Academy in Christchurch, and have two Sundays a term for training," Priya said.
She said while she had always loved ballet, it was in recent years that her passion for it had strengthened.
"I’ve only just gotten into it really in the past few years. I knew I wanted to do it further than just a few classes every week," she said.
For Hunter and Mia the ballet passion began when they moved to Wanaka when they were 8.
Mia was inspired after watching one of the mid-year ballet shows.
"I kept on joining more classes and I grew an appreciation for ballet because I like how it’s so technical ... it’s very precise," she said.
Mia travels to Christchurch twice a term for the affiliates training programme at Canterbury Ballet.
Hunter started ballet three years ago, after a background in jazz, contemporary and hip hop dance.
"I started doing ballet because I wanted to have better technique," he said.
The multi-discipline dancer said he had noticed the style difference between each one.
"I used to not really think about technique and what it looked like, but I think ballet compared to hip hop you really have to make sure you’ve got your arms in the right place, compared to the others," he said.
Hunter is also a New Zealand School of Dance Contemporary associate and currently travels regularly to Wellington to compete.
