A DANCER who grew up in Dunsborough and has just finished working on the set of Leonardo Di Caprio’s new movie, is looking forward to coming home to share his talent with others. Austin Chandler, who went to Dunsborough Primary School, will be back in Busselton in January teaching at the South West Summer School.
He has just finished working on The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrman and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Casey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire, which is due out next year. “I was a one of about 20 feature dancers for the film,” he said. “It was amazing, especially working with Leonardo DiCaprio. “All the filming was done inside one the big Fox Studios buildings in Sydney.
“They had built a full-scale 1920’s mansion which felt real – you could open all the doors and walk up and down the stairs. “It was very long days from 6am-11pm just filming the same scenes over and over but I enjoyed it.”Aside from the movie role, Austin has an impressive resume of other achievements.
“I was on TV in Dance Academy, I danced in the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards for Cody Simpson, did work at the Sydney Fashion Week and was one of the Telstra Netboys.”Austin said he had been looking forward to coming back to where it all began. “I originally started dancing when I was at Dunsborough Primary School when I was six, because of a bad back.”
He is looking forward to passing on his knowledge to local kids in the South West Summer School, which will be held in Busselton. Austin will be one of four well-known dance teachers. The others are Dave Denis, Nancy Denis and Jessica Sweeney.
“It will be a really fun week. The kids will learn all atypes of routines and we will be showing them the latest dance styles,. “My advice to prospective dancers is to just keep pushing to where you want to get,” he said.