“I seem to work better with more opposition. It’s like Patton, who said “I want to thank all my friends, and especially I want to thank my enemies because without them I would never have tried so hard.”
studies w/ Reg Hall, Regina, SK; collection of Amelia Itcush
At age 10 Amelia began dance classes at the Royal Conservatory of Music, with Mrs. Bull, who was convinced of Amelia’s talent. At Mrs. Bull’s urging, the Itcush family sent Amelia to the National Ballet School summer program in Toronto. The subsequent report on her potential left no doubt: 12 year old Amelia should not expect a future as a dancer.
“When they got the report back and it said that I’d never make a dancer, Mum said well, that’s it, no more dance. So I got a job, I was thirteen, from that time on, to pay for dance classes myself.”
Over the next few years she took various jobs, bussing tables at the Regina A&W, where she was promoted to roller-skating car hop. At 14, Amelia studied ballet and “slow blues” jazz dance class taught by Reg Hall, a former Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancer, and head of the Dance Department of the Conservatory of Music at University of Regina. At 15, she completed her Royal Academy of Dancing Intermediate Exam, and began helping to teach younger students.