Rina Nemoto knew the opening night of Anna Karenina at the Sydney Opera House would be special but she wasn't expecting she would win a major professional award.
The soloist was showered with streamers as she was named as the 2022 winner of the $25,000 Telstra Rising Star Award on Tuesday.
"I was really shocked at first when I heard my name, I couldn't describe how happy I am," she told AAP.
It's been a long road for the cast of Anna Karenina, with Yuri Possokhov's ballet originally slated for performance in 2020 and COVID-19 seeing it postponed twice.
Ms Nemoto said she struggled both mentally and physically for months during lockdowns, when the 30-year-old found herself rehearsing in the kitchen of her tiny Melbourne apartment using a temporary dance floor.
But the forced isolation meant a return to the basics of ballet for the dancer from Japan - and she has emerged stronger for it.
"I built up my strength, I can dance more freely - it's very different now," she said.
Also awarded on Tuesday was Corps de Ballet dancer Lilly Maskery, who won the $15,000 Telstra People's Choice Award.
She described the experience of hearing her name read out onstage at the Opera House as surreal.
"I was just really excited to be up there, I hadn't put much thought into actually that I was potentially going to win something," she said.
Ms Maskery told AAP the 170,000 votes cast in the popular award show the extent of public support for the art form.
"It means that there is a lot more interest in the arts ... there's a lot of support behind me and my fellow nominees, which is really lovely and special," she said.
The 21-year-old was born in Auckland and began dancing at the age of three.
She trained at the Australian Ballet School and in 2019 was one of handful of graduates offered a scholarship with the Australian Ballet by former artistic director David McAllister.
Joining the company in 2020, Anna Karenina was one of the first productions she would have danced in, but she was with the Australian Ballet for only a week before lockdowns got in the way.
"Now I am going into my third year and we're finally performing it so it feels like finally we can take a deep breath do what we actually love - which is perform," she said.
Anna Karenina plays at the Sydney Opera House from April 5-23.
