Bianka Fucsko was told she wouldn’t make it as a ballet dancer.
But after almost a decade of hard work and dreaming big, the Footscray resident will leave this week to start work with Germany’s Dortmund Ballet.
Fucsko, 22, recently finished a season with Opera Australia and has spent time at the Princess Grace Academy of Dance in Monaco and the Vienna State Opera.
She’s come a long way from the 12-year-old girl who skipped classes at the National Theatre Ballet School. Despite having artistic flair, she was also plagued by bad knees and hips and wasn’t considered naturally gifted.
“My teacher was pushing me to work on my technique, but at that age all I wanted was to be with my friends,” she says.
“I was told if I tried a bit harder I could eventually do ballet as a career, so I kept practising and was eventually accepted into the Australian Ballet School.
“But when I got there, my teachers said, ‘You’ll never be a ballet dancer’. That just made me more determined to prove them wrong.’’
At 16, Fucsko decided to return to high school, before one of her teachers took a chance and sent a video of her dancing to three ballet schools in Europe.
Eventually, she was accepted into the Princess Grace Academy and, after 18 months, landed a job with a dance company in Germany.
Ballet has since taken her around the world, including to Finland and the United States.
“It [ballet] is like an addiction,” she says. “I’m always looking to better myself, and I do hours of Pilates and cross training every week.
“Although it’s hard work, when a routine all comes together, there’s no better feeling.”
