East Sussex dancer overcomes personal tragedy to scale the heights

The venues are Theatre Royal Plymouth, Birmingham Hippodrome, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Royal Albert Hall. Gus, who comes from comes Upper Dicker, near Hailsham, recently performed in the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony and spent the summer with his family in Sussex.

Gus was born in 1997, the second of triplet boys, sandwiched between Freddie, number one and Ollie, number three: “My dad was in the same hospital having treatment for a brain tumour when mum was admitted so he was kept up with every development – and was relieved when told there were only three babies as, at one point, five had been predicted! “

The three boys are not identical: “I’m the only one with blue eyes and blond hair. We also had an older brother, Monty who turned two the day after we three arrived. Mum certainly had her hands full. Having four young bouncy boys all at home together was quite challenging so when mum heard that one of our cousins was going to dance classes at the Zoe Pennington Dance Studios, she packed all four of us off too. There was no question— we had to go! Freddie lasted one lesson – it simply wasn’t for him – whilst Monty and Ollie dipped in and out until the end of primary school. I loved the classes. We did tap, modern, ballet and musical theatre— and I looked forward to going each week..” At four, the triplets were enrolled in their local primary school—Park Mead in Upper Dicker. “There were nine boys in our class and we Paynes made up one third of it. It was good for the teachers that we weren’t identical!”

Gus entered many local competitions and festivals and, at age seven, he successfully auditioned to be in the touring West End production of Beauty and the Beast which has a season at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre. “The show used local dance students for the dance bits and I remember being a tea-cup. My head had to appear from under the large table.”

When the triplets were eight years old, their dad passed away. Gus had just started weekend classes in Covent Garden in The Royal Ballet’s Associates programme which nurtures young, talented students between the ages of eight and 17, and this gave him another focus. Here he got several great opportunities to work with The Royal Ballet. Then, when Gus and his brothers were 17, tragedy struck again: his beloved mother died, also of a brain tumour: “Since both my parents died from brain tumours, my family has done lots of fundraising over the years for Macmillan and the Brain tumour charity. We have raised over £70,000 so far. At times, I find performing quite emotional as I wish they could see me doing what I love and hope they’d be proud.”