Tara Morice (born 23 June 1964) is an Australian actress, singer, and dancer.Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Morice also lived in Sydney, Alice Springs and Adelaide as a child. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Australian History and English from the Australian National University and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1987.She has worked extensively on stage in Australia, including productions for the Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare Company, Griffin Theatre Company, Belvoir and the Ensemble Theatre. She played Fran in Strictly Ballroom when it premiered as a stage play in 1988, and she was a member of Baz Luhrmann's Six Years Old Company. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role in Fat Swan at the 2012 Helpmann Awards and a Victorian Green Room Award for The Venetian Twins in 1990.Her first film appearance was as Fran in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom (directed by Baz Luhrmann), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and an Australian Film Institute award. Morice also appeared on the film's soundtrack, singing a duet of Time After Time with Mark Williams.Morice has also appeared in the films Metal Skin, Hotel Sorrento, Hildegarde, Moulin Rouge!, Candy, Razzle Dazzle: A Journey Into Dance, the OSCAR nominated Miracle Fish and Oranges and Sunshine.Her television work includes roles in Answered by Fire, After the Deluge, Salem's Lot, Loot, Grass Roots and McLeod's Daughters. Morice had a starring role in the series of three Dogwoman telemovies with Magda Szubanski in 2000. She also plays Miss Raine in Series 1, 2 and 3 of Dance Academy for ABC/ZDF.She wrote and directed the documentary My Biggest Fan, about her correspondence and friendship with an American great-grandmother, Mildred Levine, who wrote to her after seeing Strictly Ballroom. The film premiered at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and was broadcast on the SBS network in Australia in 2008.Morice has a daughter, Ondine Morice Pearce, who was the stills photographer (at age 11) on My Biggest Fan.She re-recorded Time After Time for Baz Luhrmann's album Something For Everybody and sang on the Strictly Ballroom, Razzle Dazzle : A Journey Into Dance and My Biggest Fan soundtracks.Tara is currently producing the feature Greylands, based on the novel by Isobelle Carmody, who is also writing the screen adaptation.
"I remember when we filmed a lot of the dance sequences, particularly the big final one; that was my first day on set, my first film, and my first time dancing with a professional dancer, Paul Mercurio. So I was absolutely terrified and in many of the sequences all I can remember seeing is Paul's face" (Interview at "Strictly Ballroom" - DVD)
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Fact
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For "Strictly Ballroom" she got only 6 weeks intensive training (Latin + Ballroom)
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She visited "National Institute of Dramatic Art" in Sydney (also Baz Lurmann's school), graduated 1987; was part of Luhrmann's "repertory" for a long time.
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