The girls are all students of Wagga Academy of Ballet and they each gained third place Australia-wide in their respective AICD Classical Ballet examinations.

They were examined earlier in 2009 by ex-Australian Ballet Company principal, Mark Brinkley OAM, who was impressed by the standard of the trio.

As all three girls have also successfully auditioned for tertiary dance courses, they will be able to put these funds towards their continuing dance education in 2010.

Earlier in 2009, Lara McGirr successfully auditioned for Ikin Dance, a full-time one-year dance performance course in Sydney.

Eighteen years olds Jillian Measday and Julia Woolbank, who have both been long-time students of Wagga Academy of Ballet, were also successful in their auditions for their respective choice of tertiary dance course.

Julia plans to head off to Sydney in the new year to take up a place in the University of NSW Bachelor of Dance/Teaching course, while Jillian is bound for Brisbane to complete a Bachelor of Dance at QUT.

All students who did their Glenn Wood tap exams in 2009 were highly successful achieving distinctions and high distinctions with top scoring Level 6 student, with Hannah Bellenger achieving 93 in her exam.

While exam classes in all genres are offered at Wagga Academy of Ballet they are not compulsory and principal Leanne Nicol stresses that as well as the serious dancer, the academy also welcomes students who wish to come to dance class purely for recreation and fitness.