By Deborah Searle.

As dancers across the country are enjoying season two of ABC3’s hit dance drama, Dance Academy, Dance Informa spoke with two more of the shows young stars – Alicia Banit who plays ‘Kat Karamakov’ and Tom Green who plays ‘Sammy Lieberman’. Tom spoke with Dance Informa directly from Los Angeles as he is keeping busy filming a pilot season for another show in the States.

If you didn’t see our interviews with co-stars Jordan Rodrigues and Dena Kaplan, click here.

What do you enjoy most about Dance Academy?

Alicia
Dancing and acting have always been my favorite things and with this show I can do both! It’s my dream job.

Tom
Being part of something so original and well received, and having people contact you and tell you it has positively influenced their life in one way or another.

Did you enjoy filming season two?

Alicia
Season two was an absolute blast to film. It was great to be back with the cast and crew from season one and the new cast mates just heightened the love. It’s awesome to have a group of people with the same passion and that get along so well. It makes the whole experience so enjoyable.

Tom
Season two was a lot more fun than season one. Purely because we all knew each other much better than the previous season, we had better storylines, better routines and we were all much more familiar with our characters and their journey.

Characters Ben (Thomas Lacey), Kat (Alicia Banit) and Sammy (Tom Green) perform in an episode of Dance Academy, season 2. Photo: Mark Rodgers

Do you relate to your character?

Alicia
I absolutely relate to my character. Personality wise Kat and I are very similar with us both being the life of the party and quite quirky, but Kat deals with some family situations that aren’t ideal for her and I’ve always had a very close and loving family around me. Kat is more of a rebel than I am so it’s fun to be able to bring that side of me out through Kat.

Tom
Sammy and I both have a similar sense of humour, so I can relate to that, as well as his determination.

Tell us about your dance background.

Alicia
I’ve been dancing since I was four at T-Jam Dance School doing tap, jazz, ballet and hip hop. At the age of 12 I got a scholarship into The Victorian College of The Arts Secondary School (VCASS) and learnt new dance styles like contemporary, character and acrobatics. I’m now 21 and I still haven’t stopped dancing!

Tom
I started dancing when I was about 11 or 12 just because my sisters did it. Plus, at the time I was singing a little so I needed to know how to move on stage. I trained at the Joanne Grace School of Dance in Wollongong, NSW for about eight years in ballet, contemporary, jazz and modern. Once I turned 16 I would catch a train up to Sydney every Saturday for a hip hop class at Urban Dance Centre.

What’s your favourite dance style?

Alicia
I love hip hop and during the second season of Dance Academy I rediscovered my love for tap! They are both such free dance styles and allow you to bring your personality into them.

Tom
Contemporary or hip hop.

Tell us about your acting background.

Alicia
I started acting at the age of 6 when I got a small role in a film called Dead Letter Office. After that I did lots of comedy skits on shows called I.M.T (In Melbourne Tonight) and Rove. I stopped acting for a little while when I really focused on my dancing and then at the age of 16 I started up again getting roles in Summer Heights High, Neighbours, As The Bell Rings, Rush and Tangle. Then finally I got my dream job on Dance Academy!

Sammy (Tom Green) dancing in a scene from Dance Academy

Tom
I had always been involved in plays and shows at school and at the local theatres as a kid. When I was 12 I was accepted into a drama group called Kids Casting Agency where I would learn drama exercises and theatre sports every Saturday for a year. At the end of the year I left the group and went back to school but I was still getting called in for auditions. I booked my first job when I was 16 on a telemovie called Emerald Falls which unfortunately never got picked up. After that I went back to school and ended up auditioning for a short film called The Ground Beneath and was lucky enough to score the lead role. That film opened a lot of doors for me and my career; I signed with an agent, won several awards around the world and got to work with some industry professionals on other jobs.  Since then I’ve been lucky enough to have worked around the country on a couple of feature films, short films, corporate films, TV shows and commercials.

If you weren’t cast in Dance Academy, what would you like to be doing?

Alicia
I’d love to still be acting and dancing. I’d probably be in America auditioning for films and shows over there.

Tom
If I wasn’t cast in Dance Academy I would have probably gone back to school and finished year 12. If I wasn’t acting I have no idea what I’d be doing. It would have to be something in the arts.

What advice would you give to young dance/acting hopefuls?

Alicia
The advice I always give is to never give up. The performing industry is tough and cut throat and there are a lot of rejections. You have to not take that rejection to heart and concentrate on your goal. Do as many classes, auditions and performances as you possibly can to get your confidence up and always believe in yourself.

Tom
You have to work extremely hard in both fields if you want to pursue them as a career. If you want to dance, don’t just stick to the same styles, go out and learn new things from different teachers at seminars or workshops. If you want to act, watch a lot of classic films, become familiar with techniques, actors, directors and photographers. Experience as much as possible.

Top photo by Steve Brack.

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance news, dance auditions & dance events.

By Nicole Saleh.

If you’ve ever dreamt of becoming a dancer then you’ll surely fall in love with the popular ABC television show Dance Academy. This series tells the story of Tara Webster, played by Xenia Goodwin, a young Australian girl who gets the biggest opportunity of her life, to live her dream and study ballet at the best school in the country – the National Academy of Dance.

Like her character Tara, Goodwin is living her dream. At only sixteen years old she is an accomplished ballet dancer who is studying fulltime at Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy. She took a chance, auditioned for Dance Academy and won over the casting directors with her natural skill and talent.

With a hugely successful first series of Dance Academy now complete, it was wonderful to catch up with the lovely Xenia Goodwin to learn more about this rising star.

How long have you been dancing?
I’ve been dancing since I was nine and I’m sixteen now, so that’s seven years. I’m primarily a ballet dancer because I grew up doing that. That’s what I had always begged my mum to do. I did contemporary for a really long time as well and now I’m getting a little bit more versatile and have also done flamenco, hip hop, and jazz.

How did you win the role of Tara in Dance Academy?
I was studying fulltime at Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy and an email came through saying that ABC television were looking for dancers. It was a cattle call audition and I decided to go because my teacher Mrs P. said it would be great experience. I ended up getting a call back which surprised me greatly and then I did the acting workshop and got another call back for a screen test. I did that, and then I got another call back, all the while thinking what is going on?! I don’t even know how to explain it. I just somehow managed to get it. 

Are you also a trained actor?
No, I had never acted a day in my life apart from high school plays. It was really nerve wracking when they gave me a script and said read it on camera.  I was thinking, how do I say this line? What does she mean? It’s quite scary, but a really good learning curve.

Xenia with her co-stars on Dance Academy

How similar are you to your character Tara?
When I first auditioned for the show I was pretty much Tara. I was exactly her, just nothing but ballet, ballet, ballet. I loved ballet and that was it. I love playing the role of Tara because she’s really honest. I feel like she’s such a good person and I aspire to be like that. That’s my favourite thing about her. Also, she’s a little bit dorky and I’m a little bit dorky, so we’re actually quite alike.

What has been your favourite episode of Dance Academy?
Oh, that’s hard. I think I’d have to say the last episode of the first season (Learning To Fly) which is the end of year performance of the Nutcracker. Tara scores the lead role as Clara and she’s just blown away by that. There are rivalries with other people and she feels like she can’t do the role, but she overcomes this and she finally feels like she is flying. It was such a journey to go through all of Tara’s emotions and it just felt amazing shooting that last scene. Tara had really achieved something by the end of it, and it gave me that same feeling.

Who has been an inspiration to you in your dance career?
Funnily enough, Tara Morice in the movie Strictly Ballroom. She’s the one who made me want to start dancing when I saw that movie. I used to watch it with my nanna and I thought ‘I just want to dance!’ When I met her on the show I found out that she’s not actually a dancer. She was never a dancer, which just makes me love her more, because in that film she’s absolutely stunning and beautiful, and I idolise her completely. She’s the only person I have ever been star struck over and now I am working with her.

Who are some of the choreographers you have worked with on the show?
Well my favourite was Sarah Boulter (Contemporary choreographer) who is amazing, amazing, amazing! We had Marko Panzic (SYTYCD top 20 in 2008) for hip hop which I’m not very good at. Lisa O’Dea choreographed some of the ballet in the beginning, and also Stephen Collier who was just brilliant. Ilona Fabiszewski (SYTYCD top 20 in 2010) also choreographed some hip hop and was a wonder to work with. I was so terrible at hip hop and she tried to help me.

What do you enjoy most about working on Dance Academy?
I have met so many amazing people! Tara Morice is my idol. She’s nothing like her nasty character (Dance Instructor Miss Raine). She is the sweetest and most wonderful woman I’ve ever met. The entire crew, the producers and everybody was so lovely and hardworking. It was really nice to be in that environment.

Are you friends with the cast outside of the show?
Yes I am, all of them actually. We’re like a family. Dena (playing Abigail Armstrong), Alicia (Kat Karamakov), Tom (Samual Lieberman), Jordan (Christian Reed) and Tim (Ethan Karamakov), are all very different and amazing people! I keep in contact with them a lot. Of course Dena and Alicia live in different states so I don’t see them very often but I still chat to them. The boys live in Sydney so I see them occasionally and it’s really nice.

What has been the most difficult part of your role?
There were scenes where I had to dance in time to the music and also talk at the same time. I must be really uncoordinated because I can’t do both – dance and talk! I would either forget the steps or forget my lines. It was so hard!

Have you ever had an embarrassing moment on set?
I knew you were going to ask this question! I’ve had a few. The worst was on one of the first days of filming. I was so new and wide eyed and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t realise the walls on set weren’t real, and you can’t lean on a wall when it’s not real! It could have been disastrous had someone not caught it because I almost knocked the entire set down. I don’t think the producers ever found out about that!

What advice do you have for young aspiring dancers?
I just have to say go for it!  It’s really hard especially when all you hear is negative comments and criticism. You have to think that when your teachers are correcting you and being hard on you that they are actually only doing that because they see potential in you. So be happy if you get corrected because that means they want something more from you, which is a good thing.

Fun facts about Xenia Goodwin
- She has completed her Cecchetti Advanced 1 Ballet Exam and is working on Advanced 2
- As well as Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy, she also studies at Valerie Jenkins Academy of Ballet and is excited to be performing in the end of year concert
- When she is not doing ballet she enjoys spending an hour each day in the sun, relaxing and reading  a good book
- She has a dog called Missy Moo (nicknamed Moo) who is a black and furry ‘groodle’ -  cross between a golden retriever and a poodle
- The top five items in her dance bag are:
Bandaids, Pointe Shoes, MethylatedSpirits (to soak her feet and to prevent blisters), Hairspray, Hair Pins 

ABC TV and Dance Academy are giving away a DVD box set plus 5 Dance Academy CDs to lucky Dance Informa readers! Click here to enter!

Photos: ABC TV