Written By JOSHUA SANTOS

A Caledon native is living the dream of performing and traveling the world.

Laura Wright, from Bolton, is in her sixth year of dancing on cruise ships.

“It never feels like a job,” said Wright. “I love performing and seeing the smiling faces on audience members night after night. Then in my free time I get to see some of the most beautiful places the world has to offer.”

Wright is currently an aqua dancer for the ‘Allure of the Seas' show on the Royal Caribbean. 

“It takes several weeks to learn the shows at Royal Caribbean's 130,000-square foot, state-of-the-art rehearsal studio in North Miami, Florida and transition the show and cast to the ship,” said Wright.

Wright had to attain her PADI scuba certificate to become an aqua dancer to make entrances and exists underwater.

Wright has travelled to parts of Asia and Australia, viewing the Great Wall of China, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, La Sagrada Familia, The Trevi Fountain, and has seen countless white-sand beaches.

Wright attended Ryerson University and graduated with Honours with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Performance Dance degree. In her final year, she attended an audition in Toronto, where she was selected out of hundreds of other applicants for a nine-month dance contract on a Royal Caribbean ship.

Growing up in Caledon, she danced and performed at Mayfield Secondary School. She started dancing at the age of five, at Sondra's Tri-Dance Company in Bolton, under the tutelage of Sondra Simonetta.

While she is away from family and friends for long periods of time and lives in a small cabin with a bunkbed and no window, Wright has not stopped pursuing her passion of performing at sea.

“Spending most of my time outside of Canada, I have come to appreciate even more, all that we have here at home and how beautiful this country and its people really are,” said Wright.