Nathan Brook, a ballet dancer who grew up on the beaches of Avalon, was named the Rising Star awardee at the 2021 Telstra Ballet Dancer Awards. A soloist with The Australian Ballet, he also won the People’s Choice award, garnering over 240,000 votes, the highest in the award’s history.
The ballet dancer also won over $40,000 in cash prizes for his two honors but more than this monetary gain, his future in ballet looks even more promising as former Rising Stars of the Telstra Ballet Dancer Awards, in the last two decades, go on to become principal artists.
At 7-years-old, whilst his brothers trained with surfboards, Brook was already attending dance classes at the Lamont Dance School in Avalon Beach until he was 14 years old. The Brook family’s neighbours in Avalon, who frequently watched him dance on their back deck, saw the boy’s potential and they told his mum he should sign up for classes at Lamont.
With his family’s all-out support, he also trained in Melbourne and was part of the Queensland Ballet’s Young Artist Program, where he toured to dance in London and Shanghai.
Brook officially joined The Australian Ballet in 2016. The company’s artistic director, David Hallberg, said that Brook works with “commitment, drive, dedication and ambition,” thus he deserves the recognition.
He earned his first Ballet Dancer Awards nomination in 2018 and again in 2020.
“I have nothing but gratitude for everyone who has come on this journey with me and I can’t thank you enough for the continued support and for voting,” the ballet dancer said.