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10<br />
Tuesday <strong>March</strong> 5 <strong>2019</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
SOUTHERN VIEW<br />
Local<br />
News<br />
Now<br />
News<br />
Still performing in spite of the odds<br />
Fire rages, homes at risk<br />
• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding<br />
EVER SINCE she was a<br />
child, there is nothing else Laurel<br />
Gregory has wanted to do other<br />
than perform on stage.<br />
But it has been a “rocky” road<br />
for the Richmond 22-year-old,<br />
who has been battling an autoimmune<br />
disease for about 14<br />
years, which has led to her being<br />
diagnosed with arthritis.<br />
Yet instead of feeling<br />
sorry for herself, she has refused<br />
to let anything<br />
stop her from chasing her dream<br />
of becoming a professional<br />
musical theatre performer.<br />
Gregory is currently training<br />
in New York City at the<br />
Broadway Dance Center as part<br />
of a three-month programme.<br />
Founded in 1984, the dance<br />
school is known as one of the<br />
first drop-in studios to be<br />
established in the world and<br />
has more than 80 teachers and<br />
choreographers taking classes.<br />
As part of her training,<br />
Gregory is attending 12<br />
classes a week, including<br />
ballet, bodyArt and<br />
contemporary dance. She<br />
said she chose to attend the<br />
school after needing a “fresh<br />
perspective” on dancing.<br />
“I didn’t trust my abilities and<br />
I couldn’t stop worrying about<br />
what people were thinking to the<br />
PHOTO: SHOWBIZ CHRISTCHURCH/DANIELLE COLVIN <br />
point it would not allow me to<br />
show what I can actually do as I<br />
have to in an audition.”<br />
Gregory has been passionate<br />
about the arts since a young age,<br />
starting ballet at six.<br />
But it was when she was<br />
accepted into the National<br />
Academy of Singing and<br />
Dramatic Art in 2015 that she<br />
began to train heavily in ballet,<br />
jazz and tap.<br />
BIG DREAMS:<br />
Arthritis and an<br />
auto-immune<br />
disease has<br />
never stopped<br />
Laurel Gregory<br />
from pursuing<br />
her passion of<br />
becoming a<br />
professional<br />
performer.<br />
(Above) Gregory<br />
performing<br />
in Showbiz<br />
Christchurch’s<br />
production of<br />
Wicked.<br />
“In terms of my love of musical<br />
theatre, it was never a choice.<br />
There’s nothing else I want<br />
to do and I need to do it,” she<br />
said.<br />
When Gregory was eight, the<br />
skin on her hands and feet began<br />
to break and she recalls having<br />
to walk on her toes because her<br />
heels hurt so much.<br />
But it wasn’t until she began to<br />
get arthritis in her hands at the<br />
age of 14 that she was officially<br />
diagnosed with rheumatoid and<br />
psoriatic arthritis.<br />
Gregory said both conditions<br />
are caused by the auto-immune<br />
disease, psoriasis, which causes a<br />
rapid build-up of skin cells.<br />
Before she was diagnosed, she<br />
was told her skin condition was a<br />
result of dermatitis. But now she<br />
is taking an oral immune system<br />
suppressant, methotrexate,<br />
which has kept her condition<br />
under control.<br />
The only time she ever stopped<br />
dancing was when<br />
she attempted to take a break<br />
from her medication in 2015<br />
to find a more natural way to<br />
control her condition. When she<br />
stopped taking it her psoriasis<br />
came back “horribly” and she<br />
had to spend three months away<br />
from dance.<br />
“This time (away from dance)<br />
allowed me to realise how much<br />
I actually enjoyed dancing rather<br />
than just doing it,” she said.<br />
Gregory said she is grateful the<br />
medication gives her the ability<br />
to do what she wants with her<br />
life.<br />
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