Spotlight on Scholarship winner, Emily
Hi, loves! Last year, we introduced our Teacher Training Scholarship – we had so many applicants, that we couldn’t help but award ten full scholarships.
To celebrate our winners, we’re introducing a new Q&A series to help you get to know them a little better. We hope you love them as much as we do.
Today, it’s all about Emily.
Hello, Emily! Thanks for making time to chat. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m Emily Fox, but you can call me Em for short. I live up in Nhulunboy in East Arnhem Land, so right up the top of Australia in the Northern Territory with the crocs and the dingos and the water buffalo. I have a strong background in dance and I used to be a professional dancer. I’m now teaching dancing, ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary – the works.
Oh, and I’m 34-years-old with three children who are 2, 4, and 7.
And what attracted you to Barre Body?
I’ve really enjoyed the Barre fitness classes, I’ve done a couple up here. With my ballet training and knowledge, that has obviously led me towards it too. I also love my Pilates – reformer Pilates and mat Pilates. So then this scholarship came up on my newsfeed on Facebook as I was scrolling. And I thought, “Oh! What an opportunity! I’d love to give it a crack!” I would love to bring it to Nhulunboy because we have limited services up here, being such a remote community.
We love that attitude. Why does the scholarship mean so much to you?
I was a little bit lost. Yes, I do all the dance teaching but I was wanting to do something more. I wanted a bit of a change, I didn’t know what direction to go into – after having the three children I spent so much time parenting and putting them first, which I’ll still continue to do, but I found with Barre, it’s something that can bring calm into even the most hectic day. To focus on yourself, and give yourself the time for your mental health as well as your physical health.
So I was just blown away and so excited, it’s something I can bring to the Nhulunboy community. And it’s all online so I can become an online instructor wherever I am.
And we’re so excited for you, too! Can you tell us what movement means to you?
Movement is happiness. I find movement in myself with my dance background, moving the body gets us happy, it gets endorphins going, and it gets everything lifted and light. The stress of the world disappears. It also helps teach the way that your body works and the way that you can move your body – you can push it to limits that you weren’t aware of, especially with the dance technique and training. It can do so much more than you think.
Everyone always laughs at me because of the movement of my walking style. They say it looks like I’m gliding along clouds when I walk, even just in aisles and shopping centres. I don’t mean to, I think it’s just built in my body from years and years of training. So yeah, movement is happiness for me. It brings less stress, it brings less tension.
We couldn’t agree more that movement is happiness. What are you most excited to get out of the training?
More knowledge, and different styles of teaching. I’ve been teaching dance to students, younger children, and adults for about 14 years now. So I’d love to get more knowledge, there’s always space to learn and space to grow, and different styles and different techniques of teaching. So, that’s a big part for me, to get more of the yoga and Pilates side and incorporate that into my teaching styles.
And finally, what impact do you hope that this story has on your community?
To show people that if you’re umming and ahhing, just take a step forward and do it, and see what comes from it. With the whole Barre style, I think there’s going to be a lot of people that really appreciate it because it’s that gentler flow on the body.
We have a wide range of ages in our community up here, so it is something that each and everybody can do. You don’t need to be of a certain fitness or a certain structure to be able to partake in a Barre class. So it’s opening the doors for the community, to show that you can move your body, no matter what. There’s no harm, you’ve got nothing to lose.
Thank you so much, Emily. We can’t for you to get started with your scholarship, and see the joy you bring to your community.
