Dubbo's Amberlilly Gordon announced as 2023 recipient of Bangarra's Russell Page Professional Development Scholarship

Home-grown dance sensation, Amberlilly Gordon - a proud Wiradjuri and Ngemba woman - was announced as the recipient of this year's Russell Page Professional Development Scholarship from the Sydney-based Bangarra Dance Theatre.

"This has been a dream of mine since I was 14 years old," she told the Daily Liberal.

"Being able to take this next step and be able to dance on stage and share my culture with Australia and the whole world, it's pretty incredible. It's been a long time coming but I've finally got here!"

Ms Gordon started her dance journey in year nine when she was a participant in one of the first of Bangarra's Rekindling programs at Dubbo College. It was this visit that awakened Ms Gordon's love of dance.

"Bangarra came to the Delroy Campus and ran some workshops and it was like a switch for me - I never really knew much about my culture or about dancing in general, or that I could make it a career," she said.

"From that workshop I asked my parents to sign me up for dance classes at the Dubbo Ballet Studio. And I just kind of hit it off from there. I can't even remember what I wanted to be before that."

The program opened doors for Ms Gordon, whose skills on the dance floor earned her a spot on the NSW Aboriginal Dance Ensemble where she performed at the State Dance Festival and events across the state.

After graduating from Dubbo College, Ms Gordon went on to study at NAISDA Dance College before completing a Diploma of Dance at elite dance school Ev and Bow Training Centre in Sydney.

In 2022, she joined the Bangarra's Youth Program team as the Russell Page Youth Programs trainee. Ms Gordon said this was a "full circle" moment for her as she was able to give young First Nations people the same opportunity that she had.

"I got to actually deliver the exact same program back to some of Dubbo's students, and kids all around Australia, it was incredible," she said.

"When I got to teach the students from my old high school I could actually see myself in their shoes. Some of them have never taken a dance lesson ever and just seeing their passion and talent that they have was incredible."

Just her first season as an on-stage performer with the company, Ms Gordon has hit the ground running. She's currently performing a sold-out show at Bangarra's Studio Theatre in Gadigal country, Sydney.

Things won't slow down for Ms Gordon from there - in March, she'll be heading to Adelaide to perform a massive show at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival and she'll go straight from there to New Zealand for another performance.

"I've been chucked into it straight away - at the start of January I started dancing 'Dance Clan', which is on at the moment for a few weeks, and at the same time I'm learning two of our shows 'Terrain' and 'SandSong'," she said.

"After those shows we'll be travelling back to South Australia to go on-country and work with the elders and community members to start to create a new work, which we'll perform for our main stage season at the Sydney Opera House."

"Being able to be on stage and hearing people proudly applauding something you've done is an incredible feeling."

"I like to remind myself I'm there representing my family, my mob, Wiradjuri country and Dubbo."

As for aspiring dancers back home in Dubbo?

"Just keep believing in yourself. Don't worry about others around you and other opinions people have. If you work hard and you have the passion for it you can achieve what you want to do," Ms Gordon said.

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