Looking to the future: Vidya Cannonier-Watson received The Arch Fellowship from the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda (photo provided)

Vidya Cannonier-Watson remembers the exact moment she knew she wanted to be a professional dancer.

His brother Ravi played in Nutcracker and, looking at him, she realized her own potential.

“I realized that I really wanted to succeed,” the 15-year-old said. “I remember thinking, ‘I have to go to ballet school if I really want to go somewhere. “”

The National Dance Foundation of Bermuda helps her realize this dream. On Monday, she received The Arch scholarship, created in honor of Madame Ana Roje.

The $7,500 prize will go towards Vidya’s studies at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, England.

Vidya, who is entering her fifth year at school, had previously applied for the scholarship without success.

Last year, she shared a $5,000 Chubb Foundation scholarship with another dancer. This time around, she could only “really hope” that the Madame Roje award was named after her.

Besides the financial aid it offered, the scholarship was important because of a family connection.

Ms. Roje studied with Nikolai Legat, Principal Dancer of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Mariinsky Ballet.

She then taught at the Legat School of Ballet in London, England, where one of her students was Bermudian Patricia Deane-Gray.

Their relationship led to the Bermuda School of Russian Ballet, which Madame Deane-Gray established in the early 1950s and which “produced some of the finest classical dancers on the island”.

It was there that Vidya got her start, with lessons from Coral Waddell and Katina Woodley reinforcing the “artistic guidance” she received from her mother, Sophia Cannonier, who also studied with Madame Deane-Gray.

“Madame Ana came to Bermuda and she came to a class where my mother was and she spotted her.

“She said to Ms. Gray, ‘She’s got a real talent. You have to watch out for that one,'” said Vidya, who has been coached by Ms. Deane-Gray for the past six years and also trained in Orlando Ballet School, the Royal Ballet School and the English National Ballet School.

“And because Mrs. Gray was my teacher for a while, that kind of helped the legacy – from Legat to Mrs. Gray, to me and to my brother.”

National Dance Foundation of Bermuda Fund recipients left to right: Vidya Cannonier-Watson, Arielle Lee Ming, Ava-Joy Moreno, Ravi Cannonier-Watson, Skye Minors, Caron O’Leary for Onuri Smith and Naysaa Tucker (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

About 1,000 women and 500 men auditioned to join the dance program at Tring. These numbers have been halved; Vidya was one of ten accepted.

“Tring is a very expensive school because it is a private school and they offer both very good academic and professional training and hopefully the scholarship will allow me to continue,” she said.

His hope is to one day join a professional company such as the Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet or “perhaps even the Paris Opera Ballet”.

Chasing her dream: Vidya Cannonier-Watson performs a vertical split (Photograph provided)

Although “it’s a pretty common audition process,” she thinks she’s gotten a good head start with Madame Gray.

“I started with Ms. Gray when I was maybe eight or nine and by then I hadn’t quite grown up yet, so my technique wasn’t as polished as it was. is now. But I think as I grew and got stronger, it was much easier to live up to his expectations of me.

“And that’s just kind of special. Because it’s not every day that you realize that one of your ballet teacher’s teachers was one of the greatest dancers of his generation.

Dame Alicia Markova was another unexpected connection to Madame Roje, Vidya said.

“She taught Alicia Markova and Alicia Markova, she was the godmother of the school where I am. The Markova Theater [at Tring] bears his name. Everything seems a bit connected. I didn’t realize she was such an important figure in ballet at that time.

Although her heart is now set on becoming a professional dancer, the teenager admitted there were days when she wasn’t sure it was for her.

Sometimes she wondered if a career as a Pilates instructor or an aerial artist would suit her better.

Pursuing her dream: Vidya Cannonier-Watson has received the $7,500 Arch Scholarship from the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda, which will go towards her studies at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, England (photo provided)

“Ballet can be quite [tough]. Sometimes it’s just not going well and you’re like, “Oh, I can’t do this today.

“But, I feel like I’m so far into the ballet now; it’s too much a part of my life. I couldn’t completely let go of him. I like it too much not to do it anymore.

His advice to young people from Bermuda who are too afraid to pursue their dreams on a larger stage is to go for it.

“When I first went to school, I didn’t really feel comfortable in that kind of environment because I had been homeschooled until then.

“I really think standing out in the dance world is probably the best way to do it, but you really have to want it. Don’t wait for anyone else,” Vidya said.

“You have to work on it yourself, in the studios every night. Practice. Even if you understood well in class, start over.

“Where you come from doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t have any effect on whether you succeed or not.

Applications for the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda Fund are available through BermudaScholarships.com . For more information, send an e-mail to [email protected]