Tara Bajan is not your average 17-year-old girl. She has travelled the globe as a dance assistant, holds a vast Instagram following and is renowned for her extreme ability to turn, leap and kick. 

Earlier this year, Tara Bajan co-won Best Dancer in a Lyrical category at the 2020 Dance Writer Virtual Awards. Her ability to flow through movement with grace while expressing a story was the primary reason she secured herself an exceptional score. 

Tara Bajan dances at STARZ Performing Arts in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. On top of her weekly dance schedule, she is a workshop assistant to dance technique expert and coach Rebecca Davies under her brand Radar Technique. This role has placed Tara at the forefront of the dance conditioning world, mastering flexibility, turns, kicks and leaps to new heights. As Rebecca’s assistant, Tara has travelled to approximately 40 different countries including Russia, Iceland, Japan, United States of America, France, England, Gibraltar, Sweden, Singapore, Croatia, India and the United Kingdom.

Tara Bajan assisting at a Radar Technique workshop. Photo – supplied.

“I have been so lucky to assist Rebecca Davies, a world renowned dance technique coach, in Radar Technique workshops all over the globe, to help dancers enhance their dancing abilities and guide them to innovate and create a more confident way to express themselves through this art,” said Miss Bajan. 

Tara is often asked by young dancers, “how do you perfect your turns and leaps?” On her 70k following on Instagram, she has many young fans who admire her technical dance abilities. Yet, Tara does not strive for ‘influencer status’ on social media, rather her growth mindset is what drives her to achieve her own success. Even though self doubt and negativity can occur quite often in the dance industry—particularly in young dancers, Tara maintains her ability to believe in herself and find her power from within. 

“I have figured out that the best form of guidance is my own mindset. As an individual, it is so crucial to find your own confidence. If you are not prepared to take a risk or to support yourself even in the worst of times, you can never achieve your best.”

However prior to COVID-19, Tara’s fully-stamped passport plus a dance timetable that is bustling did find it challenging balancing her school work and her dance endeavours. 

“For me, one of my biggest challenges is balancing school while simultaneously dancing and travelling the world on tour. It can get quite hard at times as I am really keen on doing well in school and I am studying a few subjects that are a year ahead. With a continuously busy schedule, the key is to be extremely organised and disciplined when managing my time,” said Miss Bajan. 

Tara Bajan. Photo – supplied.

But that was not the only challenge for Tara. As a dancer, she prides herself to be able to move and function with ease. Yet, recently she suffered a major injury that left her unable to dance for weeks on end. 

“It was so agonising as all I wanted to do was get up and dance. Nonetheless, maintaining a healthy and healed body has been super important to me, so after the resting period, I built up so much drive and determination to work even harder post injury.”

Tara’s future is by no means set in stone. Her outlook on her future is taking one day at a time and being open to opportunities. 

“For my future in dance, I don’t have a set end goal in mind right now, however I know that I want to just keep dancing, keep learning, perhaps start promoting my own choreography and ideas, keep creating and inspiring,” explained Miss Bajan. 

Despite overcoming major obstacles at such a young age, Tara has been eternally grateful to receive love and support from her community of dancers. She has made genuine connections and shared wonderful experiences in dance, which has been rewarding for Tara. 

You can follow Tara Bajan’s journey on Instagram here.