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Racheal Webster drives an average of 400 kilometres every week just so her nine-year-old daughter, Lucy Faggotter, can do dance lessons.
It's a familiar tale in the west. Access to extra-curricular activities requires a trip to town, but with Lucy getting more and more involved in the local dance school and eisteddfods, Ms Webster said her friends and family were starting to think she's crazy.
It was Lucy's persistence which got her into her first dance classes - but none of the family expected it to turn into a 400km-per-week commitment.
"I wouldn't stop bugging mum and dad to dance," Lucy said.
"It makes me happy and I love to move my body in so many different ways."
A family commitment
Lucy said all the driving was "definitely" worth it, and her mum agreed, but admitted by Friday night it was a long drive home.
"I think people think I'm totally crazy actually," Ms Webster laughed.
"We go into town a couple of times a week to do dancing, but to make it work I try to tie it in with other things for my other kids."
Ms Webster said putting Lucy into dance classes was a family decision, but it was usually able to work in well with her two sons' commitments as well.
"As Lucy said, she was really wanting to dance and we knew that, and we held off for a long time," she said.
"She's the kind of little person who never stopped moving...she would make a stage wherever she was.
"She really has embraced it, she really loves it so it's not hard to want to take her."
It takes a village
But it's not all smooth sailing, with Lucy taking on more dance commitments, more classes, and beginning to perform solos which require extra hours in town.
"Lucy's dancing is actually a team effort with lots of other people, my sister in town and friends have had Lucy at various times just so we don't have to keep driving all the time," Ms Webster said.
But for Lucy, her dreams of dancing with the Queensland Ballet push her to practice more and more, with her now pushing to finish her schoolwork by lunch each day to allow for more dance practice at home.
It's the big bonus of studying via the Longreach School of Distance Education - a flexible school day, which is lucky considering the amount of time spent driving to and from town for dance lessons.
Currently studying ballet, tap, jazz, and musical theatre, Lucy said ballet was her clear favourite.
"You can tell a story by not only using your voice, but using your body as well," she said.
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