Sarah Nolan – Living the Fairy Tale
Playing a princess at St Albans School was the first step to Sarah Nolan dancing her way across the globe to a US national championship.
For Sarah Nolan, a wonderful teacher by the name of Barbara Edwards proved to be her Fairy Godmother many years ago. Not only did Barbara help Cinderella Sarah get prepped for the ball, but in doing so she opened up a whole new world of adventure and possibilities for a young kid at St Albans School, and a life Sarah loves but never could have foreseen.
‘I love that dance is now my full-time job, and it’s taken me all over the world and given me so much joy and opportunity,’ says Sarah, who was an outdoorsy youngster in Christchurch when her role in a primary school play became her first steps towards a lifelong passion. ‘I was to be Cinderella and the teacher wanted us all to waltz for the ball scene, so every week Barbara came to St Albans at lunchtime and taught half the school ballroom dancing!’
From there, Sarah was hooked. ‘I had always loved music and rhythm,’ she recalls, after a day of teaching kids and other budding dancers at her studio in California. ‘I would spend hours singing to my CD player by myself. And I also enjoyed body movement and people, so dancing was a great mixture of all of these.’
As much as Sarah loved dance right from her earliest steps and twirls – ‘I think I knew from the beginning I wanted to dance forever; I struggled in school a lot and I was always itching to go to the dance studio’ – she had no idea just how far her passion would take her.
As a young dancer Sarah racked up multiple titles across various ballroom formats, becoming New Zealand National Champion in Standard (Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Tango and Viennese Waltz) and Latin (Rumba, Samba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha and Jive), as well as the New Zealand National 10 Dance Champion – the decathlon of ballroom dancing.
As a 17-year-old, Sarah and her Christchurch dance partner Brian Dibnah won the Australian Youth (Under 21) Latin title, and the following year the pair wowed judges and television audiences as they showcased the skill and spectacle of Latin dancing on New Zealand’s Got Talent, reaching the Grand Final. Then came a big leap: moving to the UK as a 19-year-old.
‘Our coach was originally from England, so my partner and I were encouraged to try and make it to Blackpool Dance Festival, one of the biggest competitions in the world,’ says Sarah. ‘We’d started to make the big trip to England yearly, and then added other British competitions to our yearly travel schedule. After years of long flights and jet-lagged dancing, and pushing our parents to trust us, we moved to England to live with our coach.’
Sarah had saved all her teaching money and worked two extra jobs for a year to save enough to move to England on the Youth Mobility Visa, chasing her dream. The reality was tough. ‘I was working in London teaching dance full-time, but I struggled with how to pay for essentials while also paying for lessons with our coaches, travelling to competitions, dance costumes, and shoes,’ recalls Sarah. ‘Our industry doesn’t have sponsors like international sports teams have, so you work and then spend all your income on trying to become a better dancer … so you can get more work … so you can be a better dancer.’
The results on the floor were promising, however. Sarah’s hard work and dedication paid off as she and Brian rose from Top 96 in the world to Top 12 within a year of living in England. ‘The UK is where everyone travels to every year for the three major competitions,’ she says. ‘These are the grandest competitions you will find; the energy on the floor is electric and cut-throat. The skill level is high, and there are many world-famous teachers residing there.’
It was at a Blackpool after-party where Sarah met US-based Russian dancer Nikolai Tarasov. The pair fell in love and Sarah later moved to the States. ‘I took a huge leap of faith when I left England, and many people said I would fail and tried to talk me out of it. Somehow, I found the resilience to pull through. The visa process took about two years, but I was fortunate enough my career up to that point allowed me to be granted permanent residence.’
Sarah and Nikolai eventually became a couple on the dance floor too, and have excelled, becoming three-time US national Latin finalists, and in 2019 they were named Blackpool Dance Festival Rising Star Vice Champions (second place).
Then in September 2021 at the 50th Anniversary United States Dance Championships at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Sarah and Nikolai became the Rising Star Pro Champions. ‘The US chapter of my life has been so much fun,’ says Sarah, who took the leap to pro status ahead of that event. ‘I never saw it in my life plan, but I’m so grateful that it is.’
Her evolution from dance-loving youngster in Christchurch to teaching dance in San Francisco and winning titles in multiple countries sounds like a fairy tale, says Sarah, but there have been plenty of times spent in the deep dark woods too. ‘The amount of things that have gone wrong on my journey are absolutely endless. But this is the path of life.’
The one really tough thing, she says, is being distanced from her family. Two years of waiting for her US visa followed by the Covid outbreak means she hasn’t been home for a few years now. ‘This is, I think, the hardest thing for many dancers. We can handle physical pain from training for hours, but being away from family is a real challenge.’
She’s looking forward to being able to show her dad, an avid hiker, some US national parks, and being able to indulge in fish ’n’ chips and a good mince pie next time she’s in Aotearoa. And through it all, Sarah Nolan will dance.
A girl ‘from little ol’ Christchurch’ who worked her way to being a US national champion. ‘Never give up on your dreams,’ she says. ‘You probably won’t land where you expected, but life will give you more than you knew was possible.’
