Alice Topp secured Bendigo's second Helpmann Award for the year on Monday night.
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The Bendigo born-and-raised ballet performer won a Helpmann Award for Best Ballet after choreographing The Australian Ballet's Aurum last year.
Her work in creating Aurum - a performance based around kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with gold lacquer - was the first time she had choreographed a major stage work.
"It's crazy, if you said to me in May last year, that's what would happen I would have said 'no way, get out town'. It's unbelievable," Topp said.
"(When we won) it was surreal, it was like a dream. It sounded like silence in a room full of people. It has taken a while to digest and process it."
After premiering in June last year, the work toured to Sydney and New York and was part of the performances at the awards ceremony on Monday.
"Everyone has been very responsive to the work," Topp said. "Audiences in Australia and New York connected with it and we had standing ovations in New York.
"To see reactions and responses like that was an incredible experience for all of us. You feel pretty exposed and thrilled and terrified and excited to put your ideas on stage for people to see. It's insight to your world.
"The journey we went on with the dancers and designers and creative team, we really believed in what we were saying and doing.
"We were so passionate about it. It was absolutely a dream process from beginning to end. By the time we put it on stage, we were thrilled to share it."
Topp already has more projects in the pipeline including performances and creating a new show.
"I am already working on another piece and the experience has been so magical," she said. "I can't wait to get back to studio make more art with the talented people there.
"We're also in the rehearsal period for the next season in August. We start performing Sylvvia in August and then the Nutcracker in September."
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