‘Dream come true’: Elizabeth Johnstone heads to London with life-changing scholarship

Elizabeth Johnstone is about to embark on a trip of a lifetime, after winning a scholarship to pursue her dreams at a prestigious London dance school.

Dancer Elizabeth Johnstone is the inaugural recipient of the Annie Greig Scholarship, funded by Arts Tasmania, supporting her to study the MA Screendance course at The London Contemporary Dance School (The Place) in 2024. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

At the age of four, Elizabeth Johnstone’s parents introduced her to the world of dance to help overcome her shyness.

Now, two decades later, the Tasmanian dancer is taking her skills to the international stage after winning an inaugural scholarship.

“I would not talk as a kid so my parents were like, let’s try and get her into dance classes and I kind of just kept going and I just never stopped,” she said.

“I trained here in Hobart and then they really encouraged me to keep going with it.”

In 2018, Ms Johnstone was accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts, one of Australia’s premier arts schools. There, she was encouraged to pursue opportunities like completing a postgraduate in London.

Elizabeth Johnstone dancer. Picture: Gregory Lorenzutti

“It’s always been my dream, but I didn’t think it would happen,” she said.

She has now been awarded the inaugural Annie Greig Dance Scholarship to study a Masters of Arts in Screendance at the prestigious London Contemporary Dance School.

The scholarship was established to honour celebrated dancer, choreographer, educator and advocate Annie Greig. It will provide one scholarship to a Tasmanian dancer every year for 10 years to support them to study nationally or internationally.

Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award 2007 joint winners, Tasdance, artistic director Annie Greig who is thrilled with the company's recognition, on stage at the Theatre Royal Hobart

“This course is currently the only practice-led, postgraduate level course in the world specialising in dance filmmaking,” she said.

“My goal is to be an innovator in this niche field and become a practising screen dance artist.”

Ms Johnstone starts the year-long program in January and said she is looking forward to collaborating with other artists.

“Dance naturally is so collaborative,” she said.

“You need lights, you need music, you need costumes – you need collaborations to make it a performance.”

Arts Minister Madeleine Ogilvie said this is the opportunity Greig would have envisaged with the scholarship.

“Annie was committed to supporting the growth and development of young and emerging Australian dance artists. I am confident that she would be thrilled to see Elizabeth supported through this scholarship,” she said.