Laura Mueller: student leader and dancing teacher looks to the future

July 10th, 2010
By David Armstrong

For one who's been considered shy in the past, Year 13 student Laura Mueller is now dedicating much of her efforts at school and in the community into helping other young people who are shy, particularly those who want to use dancing as an outlet.

Laura was recently recognised at the 2010 Tasman Volunteer Youth Awards (see our story here), principally for her teaching of modern dance but also for her leadership roles at school. And she has more learning and teaching dance in her sights, with her first-choice goal to study dance in Auckland next year.

Laura was born in Germany but arrived with her parents to Marahau when she was six. The family had already holidayed in the area, so their decision to live here was simple to make. (Another reminder of the benefits to be gained when us locals are welcoming to tourists.) Laura attended Riwaka School and quickly made new friends. Having danced ballet in Germany, she continued here and then moved on to learning jazz dance.

Her main academic interests in her early teens were in English and history. She reads avidly ("inherited from my parents", she says as she points to the living room wall covered with books), mainly fiction and fantasy, but back then she also really enjoyed creative writing of her own. "I did a lot of writing when I was little. I can write, but I can never find an ending to a story."

At High School she took up salsa (inspired by the movie Dirty Dancing) and hip-hop dancing at the Star Dance Academy, which was run at the Motueka Recreation Centre by a teacher who travelled from Picton to take classes. At 14 she "graduated" to the status of leader among the 80-strong class. A year later, showing promise and ability to take "be out there", she became a senior leader and began running junior classes on her own. This experience has lifted her from her natural shyness and given her a lot of confidence.

Last year her teacher withdrew his salsa class from Motueka but asked Laura to continue teaching it here on her own. Now she has a class of about 10 at the High School. "If I hadn't taken over, it would have shut down here and the kids would've had to go in to Nelson or miss out altogether."

Her goal now (apart from completing her secondary schooling) is firstly to "get involved in lots of different styles, to see how versatile I can be", and then to audition to enter a three-year dance degree at Auckland University. And if that doesn't work out, she may well apply to do a law degree at Victoria University. "I asked Auckland University if I could combine the two, and they looked at me, like, what?".

A dance degree could lead to performing - making a living as a dancer - and/or teaching dance in schools as an NCEA subject. A third possibility could be allying it with psychology training, leading to running holiday programme camps for troubled kids, where a focus on dance is used giving them an alternative to joining gangs. That could work in with her long-time boyfriend, Nick Hill, who next year will study psychology.

Dance for some kids can be a way up, Laura says. "I can just see it in their faces. I've seen so many kids doing dance who it's like a distraction I guess, away from bad stuff. If you can find something that's a passion for them - maybe not dance, but it could be - then they get to meet other people who have the same passion, instead of wasting time hanging out with the wrong type of people."

What of her interest in law? "I like to argue and I like to win arguments," she says bluntly. She'd prefer community law or environmental law working for people who can't afford private company lawyers.

Another confidence-boosting activity in her last year at school has been as a house captain. "The point of having houses is to get everyone to participate in sports and other activities, and lots of kids need encouragement to give it a go. I enjoy doing that. It's a good challenge, doing it with kids of all ages, specially the shy ones. And our house is leading!"

Laura is also a 7th form student mentor, a role for which she volunteered. Her mentee is a third-former who benefited from having a senior to give her occasional guidance and confidence. Laura also recently spent quite a bit of time choreographing one of the dance sequences for the school play.

She has also bolstered and now leads a group of about 20 mainly younger students to work for Amnesty International. They meet weekly and are working toward Freedom Week in August, planning fundraising activities and working with the adult AI group in town. She became very keen on AI because of a talk she attended last year which inspired her. She was shocked to hear some of the issues AI is drawing attention to around the world. "I got angry and decided it was a worthwhile cause to get involved in," she says. "And I'll keep going with it in future."

Laura believes that even though she will have to move away to study and reach her potential, in time she will return here when it's time to raise a family. "Just because young people say we want to get out, it doesn't mean they don't want to come back."

So what does Laura find so special about the community of Motueka?

"In the schools there's not much bullying, compared with what I've heard from schools in other places, and not much violence or graffiti around town. Probably that's a lot to do with it being a small school and a small area and everyone's closer. The teachers know everyone by their names. The fact that there's so much support amongst you, is good.

"The young people here are the ones that will grow up to be the future citizens of Motueka. The majority will grow up to be good citizens. The high school does a lot to help. Our principal and deputy principals have good ideas, like our recent leadership day which had us doing lots of activities around in the community with different ages and groups.

"It's important for us (young people) to see those different parts of the community, because we don't think about them until we experience them. It was a day that will stick in my mind, doing that. It's good to be involved in parts of the community."

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