Living the dream

Ian Vincent and Senay Taormina have had the roles and lives that many creatives dream of, and they did too. But shifting to Nelson in 2021 marked the start of a new chapter and a new dream come true. They talk to Judene Edgar about their love of dance, performing overseas, and new baby Luca.

Ian’s Mum Tulouna taught him some of his most valuable lessons in life – don’t quit, practice makes perfect, you need to work hard, don’t waste your money. This last lesson changed the course of Ian’s life at seven years old. Tulouna had bought dance classes for his younger sister Leeza but realised too late that she was too young for the classes. Not wanting to waste her money, all of a sudden Ian had to attend dance classes – jazz ballet.

“I would tell people I was doing jazz. I didn’t want to say ballet,” he says. “I hated it for the longest time.” Despite this he enjoyed the performing, and ultimately, that’s what kept him going back. Leeza also took up dance, and Tulouna would hire a hall in the weekends so they could practice for exams. “Mum was a big believer in practice makes perfect,” says Ian. “One mistake in a routine and we’d have to start at the beginning.” For nearly 10 years he danced 20 plus hours every week. “There was many a teenage tantrum because I wanted to hang out with my mates, but I look back now and am so thankful for everything mum did for me.”

A few years after starting jazz ballet, he took up tap, and learned the drums and piano. “Tap is where it was at for me. It was all about my love of rhythm.” A friend of his was making a segment for Tagata Pasifika and asked if he could film him. The video of the tap-dancing Samoan boy from Te Awamutu came to the attention of Eileen Frost who worked at the Wellington Performing Arts Centre.

“I hadn’t really thought about what I wanted to do after school, and then one day the phone rang and it was Eileen offering me a scholarship for a two-year dance course.”

The next year Stomp came to town. Stomp is a performance group originating from Brighton, England, that uses a variety of everyday objects – brooms, dustbin lids, shopping carts, their own bodies – as percussion instruments to create a physical theatre performance using rhythms, acrobatics and pantomime. Without warning, the company founder and managing director, Jenny Stevenson, arranged for Ian to meet with the directors of Stomp … the next day!

“Jenny had heard I played drums but hadn’t actually seen me play, but she organised for me to meet with Stomp. I met them and played some rhythm games with them and they took my contact details, but I didn’t really think much of it until I received an email a few months later with ‘Stomp’ in the subject line inviting me to an audition at the Sydney Opera House.”

Auditions are normally every two to four years in London or New York, but Ian had the first and only solo audition in Stomp’s 32-year history. He was flown over to Sydney but he left quite disappointed having torn his hamstring during the audition and feeling like he didn’t perform his best. But a month later he received another email, and this time it was asking him to join them in Brighton for eight weeks training. As soon as he turned 18, he was on the plane … but the audition process wasn’t quite over yet. He still had to prove himself before he was able to perform. Determined not to let the opportunity go to waste, Ian had his mother’s voice in his head as he practised and practised to ensure he made the cut … and sure enough he did.

“Initially I thought I’d stay with the troupe for three years. I performed on West End for two years and then started touring, so stayed longer, and then I just didn’t quit. It really was my dream job.”

But, used to a strong work ethic, on top of rehearsing and performing he decided to expand his repertoire and took up photography. This then expanded to editing and post-production, and then he started doing freelance work.

In 2012 while performing with Stomp at the London Olympics closing ceremony he met Australian dancer Senay Taormina. Unlike Ian, Senay had wanted to dance for as long as she could remember. And after a long wait and lots of insistence, she finally started dancing at age three! In fact, she even found a picture of a ballet dancer in the local yellow pages, ripped it out and gave it to her mother. She picked well – the Sheila Laing Academy of Performing Arts.

Classically trained in ballet, Sheila taught her students a huge amount of discipline and good practice. “I lived and breathed dance,” says Senay. “As young as I remember, I always wanted to dance, and I owe my whole career to Sheila.”

The Sheila Laing Academy was the first dance school in South Australia to include full-time students, and so Senay completed her Year 11 and Year 12 studies via correspondence so she could dance full-time. In Year 12, Sheila took a group of students to the UK to audition for various schools.

“I had been very tunnel-visioned, only wanting to look at ballet schools,” says Senay, “but when we went to Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom, the atmosphere there was like walking into the movie ‘Fame’. There was so much excitement and joy.” A scholarship offer meant that Senay’s mum returned back to Australia alone and Senay started studying musical theatre and jazz at Laine Theatre Arts along with two other Sheila Laing students.

“They called us the Australian aliens,” laughs Senay. “We did things very differently and sounded very different, but I loved it there and my love for theatre and jazz took over.”

About a year into her course, she saw an opportunity to do full production shows on a Norwegian Cruise Line. She skipped school to audition and next minute the 18-year-old was headed to Miami and a career was born. Her CV reads like a dream – TV, film, commercials, theatre, tours, cruises, music videos, cabarets, award shows, major events – but Senay says that there was a lot of grafting along the way.

“The industry is tough but incredible. But I knew it was what I was meant to do,” she says. “Once you start you keep going, but while my CV looks amazing, there are a lot of noes and heartache that you don’t get to see.”

Between the tours and the cruises, London was her homebase for over 20 years. On one of her breaks, she was asked to perform in the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, meeting a kiwi dancer called Ian. But Senay was ready to try something different. Like her mentor Sheila, she wanted to try her hand at teaching.

Six months after they met, Senay was offered a job in Edinburgh at the MGA Academy of Performing Arts creating the dance course, and Ian went with her. “It was an incredibly challenging role, teaching, choreographing, creating content and marking, but also really fulfilling watching the students on their journey,” she says. The one year turned into fourand-a-half years, with Ian coming back to his new home in Scotland between tours. But then Senay’s dream role came up in The Bodyguard musical in Stuttgart. “I had auditioned a few times previously, getting to the end rounds multiple times, but hadn’t been successful, but this time felt different,” she says. So, she “pulled a sickie” and headed to Germany for the audition. Despite being the oldest dancer in the room, she was successful. “I’d never felt more comfortable in my skin,” she says. “It was meant to be at that time.”

They moved to Stuttgart where Senay spent the next one-and-a-half years in her dream show, and despite being the oldest dancer, never once had to take a day off for illness or injury. But it also marked the end of her full-time performing career. Having achieved all of her career goals, the time now felt right to start the next phase of her career, this time as a talent agent. She’d worked as a stager for a production company, and having supported her Edinburgh students transition into careers, it felt like the right move. It was then that the Dark Horse Agency was born.

Like everyone else in the performing arts industry, Covid signalled significant changes. Ian’s Visa had run out and with 120 clients on the books, Senay was spending a lot of her time guiding careers, providing industry support and teaching, so they decided to use the opportunity to shake things up. Ian shifted back to New Zealand in 2021 and put up a FB post outlining his photography, editing and post-production skills. Tim Williams from Lumiere Production Studio in Nelson saw his post and offered him a job.

Covid kept them apart for twelve months with Senay unable to get into New Zealand, but eventually they were reunited in Nelson. Despite being a far cry from London, they are loving the new experience.

“Adjusting took a bit of time, but it’s really cool, and now that we have a child it’s the perfect place for bringing up a family,” says Ian.

And Senay went back to London for work in February and says that she couldn’t get back here fast enough! Now, with four-week-old Luca, Senay is able to work from home managing clients with the help of two staff members in the UK. And in addition to working at Lumiere, Ian has recently been working with students at Nayland College, teaching them some of his Stomp techniques which they recently showcased in the annual dance performance.

“We’re enjoying this new chapter in our lives. It’s a little day-by-day with a newborn, but there’s so much creative stuff to get involved with, it really is living the dream,” says Ian.