Standing in a studio in a small country town instructing ballet students may be a far cry from the Romanian theatres he is used to dancing in, but for Douglas Stewart both stages are equally important.
Growing up in Weipa in far north Queensland, he knows all too well the difference having access to the arts in a small town can make.
Thanks to a wonderful teacher, he was able to pursue his passion from the age of five.
“Mum’s a mining engineer and dad’s a mechanical engineer — how you get a ballet dancer out of that, no-one knows,” he laughs.
Moving to Brisbane some years later, Douglas decided on ballet dancing as his career; his studies taking him to England and eventually the Romanian ballet, where he danced for four-and-a-half years.
“It was quite a journey full of ups and downs,” he says.
“When you’re finished a solo, you’ve given your all out there, and then everyone’s standing on their feet giving you an ovation.
“That’s something you can’t quite explain to most people … it makes everything, all the pain, the injuries [worth it].”
Douglas has now turned that passion into teaching, moving to a small rural town, and expanding the reach of the local dance school into more remote parts of the region.
He wants kids to have the same access to the arts as they do more conventional sport, like football, cricket or netball.
From Romania to Blackwater
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it changed the course of Douglas’ life.
His dance company, run by the Romanian government, was not able to perform, meaning dancers did not get paid.
He returned to Australia in March 2020, living with his parents who had moved to the small central Queensland mining town of Blackwater.
He took up various local jobs as they became available, but he missed the stage.
Douglas contacted the Emerald Academy of Dance, arranging to use the dance school’s studio for practice, in exchange for teaching a few classes.
Jane Davis, who runs the dance school, welcomed the idea.
“[Seeing the email] we went, ‘Oh, wow, that’s exciting, because we love having guests, teachers,” she says.
“[But] we thought, ‘Why is he coming to Emerald?'”
It was also a surprise to students like 15-year-old Gracie Finch, who says she “wasn’t expecting a professional ballet dancer”.
Jane says Douglas has a lovely rapport with the kids.
“They can see that [being a professional dancer] is achievable for anyone,” she says.
“We often have people say to our teachers, ‘Why are you still in Emerald?’ and they say, ‘Because why are the Emerald children any less deserving than the city children of having a quality teacher?’.”
Dreams expanding
After his arrival to the Central Highlands, it wasn’t long before Douglas stopped working his supplementary jobs to focus on teaching, alongside the school’s current instructors.
He’s now helped open a satellite studio in the nearby smaller town of Springsure.
“I came from a little country town … just having something other than soccer and cricket and things like that really open it up to kids,” he says.
He would like to see dance and ballet have similar availability in towns as common sports, and to clear up misconceptions and stereotypes about the art form.
“Even if it’s only one out of 100 kids that want to become a dancer, it gives them that push in the right direction to try those sorts of things,” he says.
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