The Star: March 28, 2024

The Star Thursday March 28 2024
12
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Champion swimmer making
a splash in world of dance
• By Jean Edwards
RISING BALLET star and teen
swimming sensation Hamish
Giddens has mastered the art of
fluid movement.
The Burnside High School
16-year-old, who holds four
national age-group titles in the
pool, will fly to New York City
next month to compete in the
world’s biggest student ballet
competition - the Youth America
Grand Prix.
Giddens will perform a
variation and modern solo
judged by a panel of top ballet
school and dance company
directors, and take part in
adjudicated classes in the hope of
winning a scholarship to train in
Europe.
After placing third in the
men’s classical category at
regional semi-finals in Sydney
last September, Giddens is poised
to leap into the world of dance.
“When you dance it’s like
nothing else is really happening.
Expressing yourself through
movement feels like a completely
different world to expressing
yourself through words,” he said.
“Being on stage is the best
feeling, I can’t describe it. It’s just
amazing, it makes everything
worth it.”
The talented teenager’s
growing set of medals and
awards includes gold in the
1500m freestyle at last year’s
New Zealand short course
swimming championships,
breaking a decades-old
Canterbury record for 15-yearold
boys formerly held by an
Olympian.
Giddens also claimed the
800m freestyle, 400m freestyle
and 200m backstroke titles,
and silver in the 1500m open
men’s category, making him
the youngest swimmer in the
country to win an open medal.
“That was surreal. I was not
expecting to get that silver medal
and a Canterbury record as well
for my age group. It was a great
feeling,” he said.
Part artist, part athlete,
Giddens said he benefited from
the complimentary aspects of
swimming and ballet.
“Ballet has helped me take
on a lot of stroke corrections
for swimming. Swimming has
definitely given me an endurance
part for my ballet, which is
definitely needed for both
sports,” he said.
Giddens – who comes from
a family of six – took his
first ballet steps at the age of
four, copying his older sister
practising in the lounge.
He has also followed in the
footsteps of his great aunt
Lorraine Peters, Southern Ballet
founder and Christchurch
FLUID MOVEMENT: Ballet dancer and swimmer Hamish Giddens says he benefits from
the various complimentary aspects of the two disciplines.
PHOTOS: RNZ
master tutor and choreographer.
His father Kelvin Giddens said
Hamish showed an aptitude for
dance at a young age.
“He’s a clever boy, he’s really
driven, he’s very committed,
determined and goal-driven, and
quite unique in his ability to set
out to achieve what he aims to
do,” he said.
“Both physically and mentally
he picks things up really, really
easily. He’s very focused, so I
think he has the head game to
make things happen.”
Giddens wakes at 5.30am for
swim training from 6-7.30am
five mornings a week, including
Saturday.
He also trains at Convergence
Dance Studios four days a week.
Kelvin said he enjoyed seeing
friendships blossom between
Hamish and other swimmers
“When you dance it’s
like nothing else is really
happening. Expressing
yourself through movement
feels like a completely
different world to
expressing yourself through
words.”
– Hamish Giddens
and ballet students, and his
achievements in two technically
and physically demanding
pursuits.
“A number of his swimming
coaches have commented how
quickly he picks up corrections.
“The corrections in ballet are
minute so he can apply that to
his swimming. His core strength
he gets from ballet is an amazing
platform for him to swim off
and the fitness he takes from
swimming transfers really well
to ballet,” he said.
Giddens trains at Convergence
under artistic director Olivia
Russell.
She said he stood out for his
ideal proportions, long lines,
musicality, stage presence
and quick ability to apply
corrections.
“For the majority of even
exceptional dancers, it takes a
good chunk of time to process
a correction. You give him
information and he processes
it very quickly to his body,” she
said.
“He applies it and keeps that
application, so when he comes
back to your next coaching
session it’s still there, which is
really rare and a brilliant quality.
He’s not just a technician, he
actually has a great future as an
artist as well.”
Russell said swimming had
given Giddens the power of
endurance, which was vital in
the world of professional male
ballet dancing.
“They have to be as fit as a
swimmer, as fit as a runner, they
have to be strong enough to lift
humans above their heads and
they have to make it all look
easy. They have to be musical,
they have to be artistic and
then there’s the ballet technique
itself,” she said.
Despite the physical, technical
and artistic skills involved,
Russell said perceptions about
boys and dance still needed to
change.
“My own son had a period
of time last year as a wee eightyear-old
hiding in the library
at lunchtime because he was a
‘ballet boy’. I think that’s quite
heartbreaking,” she said.
“I think we should promote it
rather than ridicule it.”
Russell said international
competitions like the Youth
America Grand Prix and Prix
de Lausanne could help to
launch the careers of aspiring
professional dancers, by creating
global connections with elite
ballet schools and companies.
While tuition fees are often
included in scholarship offers,
travel and accommodation is
not, so the Giddens family has
set up a Givealittle page to help
financially support Hamish
overseas.
He has been offered direct
entry to The Royal Ballet
School’s 2025 summer intensive,
when he will spend up to five
weeks training in London.
He is also taking part in the
The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s
national mentor programme,
under which he will be mentored
by dancers and the company’s
artistic team over the course of
the year.
Russell said Giddens had a
bright future in dance.
“I am very proud of him, on
all levels. Everything that he
has pushed through technically,
emotionally, mentally. He has
really grown as a whole person
and dancer. I’m really excited to
see his dreams come true,” she
said.
Giddens dreams of one day
dancing for The Royal Ballet in
London or Dutch National Ballet
in Amsterdam.
“Ballet feels like my heart is
fulfilled when I do it and it’s my
passion. Ballet is definitely what
I want to do with my life. It’s my
favourite thing in the world,” he
said.
That dream is taking shape,
one step at a time.
- RNZ