Ursula Robb, dancer with the New Zealand Dance Company.
My happy place is the arrivals hall at Auckland International Airport, specifically the Maori carved gateway with the birdsong playing constantly. I lived in Brussels for about 12 years, and would only get back to New Zealand once every couple of years, so those brief trips home were highly anticipated events.
As a child, like many young kids, I liked the idea of dancing. But, as we lived way out in the country, getting to dance classes meant an hour in the car each way once a week. My mother made it quite clear that she wasn't going to waste her time unless we were prepared to practise and do well at it, so from an early age I worked really hard, practised in the woolshed and took it very seriously.
My first overseas trip was in 1991 with the Douglas Wright Dance Company. We performed at the London Dance Umbrella festival, and in a few other venues, too. It was so exciting. I would have been about 22 years old. The dance part of the trip was probably two or three weeks maximum, but I stayed on afterwards and toured around Europe by myself, so the whole trip was a couple of months.
I was very happy to come home. My first time in Europe, although inspiring and thrilling, was also overwhelming: expensive, unfamiliar, masses of people, negotiating in different languages ...
