A dedicated and driven 15-year-old from Tauranga has just won New Zealand's most prestigious senior ballet scholarship.

Olivia Moore beat out 30 other contenders to win the Sir John Logan Campbell Major Ballet Award at the Auckland Caledonian Dancing Society Competition, which doubles as the New Zealand Ballet Nationals, held recently.

'It's a bit of surreal experience for Olivia,” says Mum Kat, 'because it's such an important awards for ballet dancers. And I am very,very,very proud.”

Proud but gracious. 'To be fair, there were three other girls and a boy who were as good as Olivia. It was tight. But she has an amazing performance ability and that set her apart.”

The award, which is valued at $5000 and is now into its 40th year, is perceived as the pinnacle prize for ballet students whose ambition is to become a professional dancer. Many winners have gone on to dance with companies in Australia, Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Olivia also found out last week she's been accepted into the New Zealand School of Dance for full-time training as a Classical Major.

'For a 15-year-old that is a pretty amazing achievement,” says Kat.

Olivia the Auckland Caledonian Dancing Society Competition held recently. Supplied Photo.

It's also amazing how she got there. Technically Olivia is still a Year 10 student, but she needed NCEA Level 1 Dance in order to audition.

'So she withdrew from college, skipped a year and did NCEA Level 1 this year through Te Kura correspondence so she could audition. She saved herself a year and was accepted. She's been like that since she was little,” says her Mum.

Olivia's has already been offered places overseas but she wants to stay in New Zealand in the short term.

'We have watched the good kids get taken.” says Kat. 'They go overseas and you don't hear of them again unless they really, really make it. Olivia didn't want to be one of those kids.”

Her Mum says Olivia wants to be the best in New Zealand, a name in New Zealand, keep her talent in New Zealand and be loyal to the training she has received here. And on that score she'd like to give a shout to her teacher and mentors including Debbie and Prue Gooch at The Dance Education Centre.

'But clearly there will come a time.”

The Moore ballet dynasty doesn't stop with Olivia.

Thirteen-year-old sister Arabella has just auditioned for the associate programme at the School of Dance which Olivia has just completed, and waiting in the wings is 8-year-old sibling Lucia. Both sisters dance nationally.

Mum Kat was also a dancer. 'But certainly not to their level. I was a rhythmic gymnast and then jazz, but not ballet.”

Photo: Beth Maskey Photography