From chorus line to star

Talia Fowler, has been thrust into the media spotlight since winning So You Think You Can Dance Australia.

No sooner had she finished the grand final, she was on the set of Rove being interviewed about her win. Since then she’s spent the better part of the last 24 hours doing media rounds with a revolving door of interviews every fifteen minutes.

All this for an 18 year old who normally slips into the ballet chorus line where the trick is to not stand out. It’s been a steep learning curve. So far media are asking her the basics.

“‘What are you going to do with the money?’ ‘How did you feel when you won?’ That kinda stuff,” she told TV Tonight.

“It was definitely hard being the ballet dancer. At first it was looked upon a little bit weirdly I think. And I felt really out of place in the competition. I didn’t really feel like I should have been there. It was a bit hard to deal with. And then I snapped right into it and thought ‘let’s enjoy this experience.’ If you put yourself into the right headspace and say that you can do it, it obviously helps you.”

Part of the key to winning Dance is not just technical skill, but in connecting with the voting audience as contestants strive to communicate the person behind the dancer. Fowler had to adjust to the demands of reality TV.

“I wasn’t really used to having to show any personality at all. In the classical world it’s just all about technique. It doesn’t matter what you’re like as a person. It was very different to have people like your personality.”

After a few weeks on the show, she found her confidence.

“All I had to do is really relax into the whole system. I’m naturally a shy person. I started off the competition just sitting in the background a little bit where I was comfortable. But I decided that wasn’t working for me and to believe in myself a little bit more, and become more confident in what I was doing.

“All of a sudden things got better and I was enjoying myself more and my confidence kept growing.”

Fowler says that while she hasn’t quite perceived how her win has been received by the wider dance community, (“because I’m not fully out of the competition”) her former company, Queensland Ballet, is extremely proud. She had to resign her contract before competing on the show.

“The Australian Ballet was extremely impressed too and I’ve had a lot of good responses from overseas,” she said.

“So I’m very content with how I represented the genre.”