Each year, as students graduate from their university courses, we have the joy of continuing to support them in their life journey as valued alumni members.
Photo by Fiona Cullen, courtesy of Felix Palmerson
One such student this year is Felix Palmerson, a recent graduate from the QUT’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance). While most students would relish the holiday after grueling years of study, this highly motivated student had other ideas.
“The day after my final assessment performance at QUT, I travelled to Perth to partake in an incredible master workshop with STRUT Dance. Ever since, I have kept busy with various opportunities in and around the field of dance in Brisbane; from dance admin and front-of-house work to choreography, performing and teaching. My life is well and truly full of dance, which is an incredible feeling coming straight out of my degree.”
For many students, completing university can be both liberating and scary. Gone are the tight schedules and predictability, replaced with a world of work, job hunting, travel and planning for the future. While Felix admits that her new lifestyle is exhausting, she loves every minute of it.
“I remind myself that this is the life I choose as an independent artist. It’s an exciting life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
While Felix expected that she might have felt a bit lost after university, with the help of a busy work schedule she has been anything but.
Felix works as a professional dancer and choreographer in both paid and unpaid roles. She supplements this income by working front of house at the Brisbane Powerhouse, teaching dance to adults and children and two separate dance studies and even works casually at a grocery store when she needs a bit of extra financial stability.
Felix has worked incredibly hard to get to where she is today. Not only has she completed university and secured her financial independence, she has done so all while being away from her home and family in Yarraville.
She credits Western Chances’ “life changing” scholarships and the support of her parents as significant factors in this success.
“As a young person, I could always feel the burden that my dance pursuits placed on my family. I attribute so much of my success to the fact that my parents never said no to seeing that show or traveling interstate to do that audition. They always found a way. I’m certain it would not have been possible without the help of Western Chances.”
Last time we spoke to Felix, she said that one of her big dreams was to travel as a dancer. And while she says that is still on the cards, her focus is now to “make good art, support good art, help good art happen in any way that I can!
A lofty goal that we have no doubt Felix will achieve.
If you would like to support other young people like Felix, you can make a donation from as little as $10 a month, here.
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