TWO Hamilton Dance Company students are heading to Melbourne after they were accepted into pre-professional dance programs.

Savannah Edwards and Annabel Kent have danced from home via Zoom over the last two years, but that hasn’t slowed them down; the girls have used their time learning from the loungeroom to improve their technique, strength and will go after their goal of dancing full-time.

Hamilton Dance Company director, Kylie Lewis said she was very proud of the hard work her students put in over the last two years, despite the challenges thrown at them.

And while Hamilton Dance Company is not known for producing pre-professional dancers, she was more than happy to support her students achieve their goal and said to have two accepted in the same year was amazing.

Savannah will undertake a two-year contemporary, pre-professional course at Transit Dance, Brunswick, while Annabel is off to the Victorian State Ballet two-year pre-professional program.

The dancers both said Zoom classes were initially a challenge but offered an opportunity to dedicate more time to dance.

Lockdowns also provided the opportunity to be taught by a variety of well-known choreographers from around Australia; both took advantage of free online classes, an opportunity they otherwise would not have had.

“Two years of it was hard but mum and dad helped and supported me; they made a space for me to be able to do that (dance) - it was hard to stay motivated,” Savannah said.

“It was a little bit challenging at the start, but I got used to it at the end and just pushed through because I knew there’d more time that I’d be able to do ballet, so I actually improved, but it’s better in the studio,” Annabel said.

The audition process for both girls started in August after COVID-19 lockdowns stopped in-person auditions from taking place.

Ms Lewis said the girls had access to the Hamilton Dance Company studio for their auditions, giving them the best chance to impress.

“With COVID-19, it was a different way they approached it (auditions), they were going to do live auditions, but then it kept getting pushed back due to lockdowns, so I did an online one via zoom in the studio, it was about three to four hours,” Savannah said.

“I had to apply online to do an audition through zoom, I went to the studio and it was an open audition, so it was with a lot of others as well - so we did that and it was about two hours long,” Annabel said.

“They said we’d get an interview afterwards on Zoom and I got mine at 7pm, and she said that I was successful in getting into the pre-professional program.

“I’m very excited, and I was a little bit shocked.”

The girls said they were thrilled to be back in the studio and performing to a live audience after such a prolonged period away from the stage.

As for their big move to the city, both said they were looking forward to meeting new people and getting stuck into training early next year.

“I’m very excited because it’s going to be a very different experience and longer hours so very different,” Annabel said.

“I’m looking forward to progressing in my dancing and my technique and more performances on stage and meeting a lot of new people and teachers.”