WHAT began as a holiday option for the talented ballerina Gina Janus, ended up becoming the beginning of a new career opportunity with the renowned dance group, VOU.
Ms Janus is a Canadian national who lived in New Zealand for the past seven years of her life, and has now joined VOU as a choreographer.
“I really love Fiji and teaching here is so different, there’s so much energy with these dancers, it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” Ms Janus told this newspaper.
“The dancers here have so much potential and it’s really inspiring and rewarding at the same time to be able to teach them.”
Ms Janus acquired a diploma in dance from Vancouver in Canada after four years of hard work and persistence. She then taught in New Zealand for a number of years before coming to teach in Fiji.
“It was really just perfect timing. When Sachiko (one of the founders of VOU) offered me a full-time job here, I was going through a transition stage in my life, so I agreed,” Ms Janus said.
The Canadian native began work in October last year and will continue to do so for the next three years.
She teaches ballet, hip hop, contemporary dance and jazz to the students of the VOU School of dance and music. “I guess our main aim is to make the dancers versatile as well as able to incorporate more genres into their dances,” she explained.