Online lessons with Australian Ballet star help Sam follow his dream

Young Ballarat dancer Sam Holzberger has a dream to dance with The Australian Ballet.

Every Sunday morning for the past eight weeks he has had a taste of what that future could be like.

Thirteen-year-old Sam has been doing weekly online training with Australian Ballet soloist and former St Patrick's College student Callum Linnane.

Linnane grew up in Ballarat and started dancing at the age of seven with the Ballarat Centre of Music and the Arts, just like Sam.

"It has been really good because it is a perspective on what I want to do and it gives me a clearer vision," Sam said about his lessons with Linnane.

You can see when he dances he just loves it so much.Karryn Holzberger, Sam's mum

The coronavirus pandemic has created challenges for Sam in what is a key year in achieving the next step towards his dream.

Sam has continued dancing five or six days a week in the family's lounge room, pushing furniture to every available space in the small home.

Mum Karryn Holzberger said their couch had been pushed into the kitchen when she spoke to The Courier on Sunday morning before Sam's lesson with Linnane.

Watch Sam dance earlier this year below.

In addition to keeping on top of on ballet lessons with BCMA, Sam has submitted video auditions to The Australian Ballet School and Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in Melbourne, where he hopes to secure a place for next year.

Sam is expecting to hear whether he is accepted to either school by the start of October.

Ms Holzberger said it was amazing to see her son know what he wants to do at such a young age and be so dedicated to improving his skills.

"It is very scary. We don't come from a dance background or anything so we are taking it day by day ourselves," she said.

"It is scary to think he might go to Melbourne next year at 14. I don't know if I am ready for that but he certainly is."

Sam began dancing at age seven and said he realised he wanted to pursue ballet after being accepted to travel to Los Angeles for dance workshops two years ago.

When asked what he loved about ballet, he said: "I like that it is very structured and has a right and a wrong and I get to be free and do what I want."

RELATED COVERAGE: How Ballarat's Callum Linnane is conquering the ballet world

Ms Holzberger said she can remember Sam saying he wanted to be a ballet dancer from as young as kindergarten, when he had not even started to learn to dance.

"Once he started and they said he has got a bit of talent, can he do competitions, that was it. He just loves it, you can see when he dances he just loves it so much," she said.

Ms Holzberger said Linnane was Sam's first male dance teacher and it was incredible how much Sam had learnt in a small amount of time with him.

"Callum is unbelievably supportive and has picked things he can work on that we haven't heard before, because he comes from that perspective," she said.

"For Sam, it has been amazing because Callum is doing what he wants to do. He is exactly where Sam wants to be, so I think that has been great for him."