I love that a 14-year-old dancer from Kurri Kurri called Elih Egan (pictured above) took home the winning title in the 2024 Sydney Eisteddfod Ballet Junior Age Group over the weekend.
So cool! Very Billy Elliott!
In fact, three Hunter Valley boys triumphed during the Sydney Opera House event, including Elih (who also scored an Australian Ballet School scholarship), Newcastle’s Ryan Keo and Islington’s Charlie Duwner.
Go you good things!
My family originally hail from Kurri Kurri/Cessnock and those towns weren’t producing many male ballet dancers when I was a kid. It was a mining region, much like the one in the film Billy Elliott.
A Kurri Kurri distant relative of mine, Jemma House, has been similarly successful in the soccer stakes. Long before the Matilda’s World Cup performance captivated record crowds she played college soccer in the United States and is currently a Newcastle Olympic striker.
It is so awesome that kids get to be themselves these days and follow their dreams without worrying about stereotypes.
Although I wish mine would worry a little about letting me know they’re alive.
I sent the eldest a message yesterday afternoon asking if they were home for dinner after being overseas for almost a month.
No reply.
The hours ticked by and I figured they were probably asleep, but as the night wore on I figured they might be out catching up with friends.
There was evidence they’d been home – I found the first aid kit lying open on the hallway floor and the dehumidifier was missing from the lounge room.
But I was too nervous to knock on their bedroom door as I think the saying goes “let sleeping 20 year olds lie” …
I sent a few more messages. No reply.
It was hard to get to sleep and I kept checking my phone anxiously.
Just as I was drifting off around midnight I heard the clink of plates in the kitchen.
Proof of life! Phew.
They’d been asleep the whole time! I wish I had that superpower.
Yawn.
Song of the day: T Rex “Cosmic dancer”
housegoeshome 
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