A love of dancing and a passion for furthering her skills has seen Forbes girl Aimee Woods having the time of her life working as a dancer at Universal Studios in Japan.
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The 21-year-old has been living and working in Japan for the past 12 months and has just renewed her contract with Universal Studios for another year, which will see her there until March 2016.
Her job involves dressing up and performing as a number of different characters for Universal Studio’s live entertainment and parades.
Some of her characters include the role of the green character, ‘Hip’ in the Universal Monsters Live Rock and Roll Show, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in the Magical Starlight Parade, an ensemble performer in the Song of an Angel show and a float dancer in the Parade de Carnival.
Aimee auditioned for the job back in September 2013 while completing her Certificate IV course at Brent Street Performing Arts School in Sydney, which she finished in December 2013 before moving to Japan.
“I auditioned for Universal Studios Japan not knowing what could come of it,” she said.
“It was a year-long contract, which scared me a little at first but I really just went into it for the confidence boost and audition experience.”
When Aimee found out she was accepted, she was “over the moon”.
“I think in that moment of reading the email I knew I wanted to take the offer - I was getting paid to do what I love, whilst living in a different country,” she said.
Aimee said she wasn’t ready to leave just yet, so decided to extend her contract for another year and she can’t wait to continue learning and working on new skills.
“It’s been such a rewarding experience and almost hasn’t felt like work, because I genuinely love what I do,” she said.
“We’re nearly all hired to either sing, dance and/or act but it’s surprising to see how many other amazing skills everyone has hiding away, which really inspires me to push myself further.
“So I’m excited to spend another year here in Japan working on new skills, meeting more talented performers, travelling and learning about this wonderful country.”
Aimee said it has been difficult being so far away from her friends and family in Forbes but it means that when she does see them, it’s all the more special.
Aimee was born and raised in Forbes and has been dancing since the age of four.
She began dancing here under the instruction of Lia Devries for several years and then continued training in Forbes with her sister, Kristen Woods, Samantha Phillips and Edan Ellison for five or six years before she auditioned for the Brent Street Performing Arts School.
Aimee graduated from Forbes High School and was school captain in 2011 and she spent 2012 living in Forbes teaching and dancing at Kristen Woods Dance Studio.
She was originally planning on accepting an offer of Exercise Science at Griffith University at the Gold Coast campus and furthering her studies to become a physiotherapist, however when she got her acceptance to Brent Street, it was an obvious choice.
“It was a win-win situation for me, but I felt I wasn’t ready to stop performing so I accepted my offer to Brent Street and put uni on hold for the time being,” Aimee said.
Aimee was one of about 65 people selected for the Brent Street course out of hundreds of people who auditioned from around Australia.
She loved the course and all of the opportunities and experiences that came out of it.
“It was such a great experience to be taught by so many industry professionals including Jason Winters, Cameron Mitchell, Caroline O’Connor, Matt Lee and Kelley Abby, just to name a few,” she said.
“It really opened my eyes to different styles and what work was available out there in the industry...it gave me a sense of what it’s like to perform professionally within the entertainment industry whether that be musical theatre, amateur theatre, cruise ships, backup dancing for pop artists, or performing with Cirque du Soleil - the opportunities are endless.”
Aimee said all of her dancing training has led her to Japan, which is exciting not knowing where the path will take her next in her career.
“After graduating high school, I never predicted to be living in Japan, so for those finishing school undecided about where to study, what jobs to apply for or accept, just do your research, put yourself out there into things you love and make you happy and you never know where you’ll end up,” she said.