last diary next diary first diary BGBC tour dates Central School page The students... Pia Driver Laura Caldow Benjamin Whitson Martin Collyer We are following four final year Central School of Ballet students through their final training, UK tour and hunt for jobs. The students involved record their thoughts the way they want and when they want, and we wish them every success for the future. The diary starts in Feb 2000

Laura Caldow
What a busy and varied month March has been for me! With touring, a Gala performance at Sadlers Wells and a trip to Italy, my feet have hardly touched the ground. At the beginning of the month, it was my turn not to go on tour so while the others set off for Boston, I stayed behind. In some ways staying behind is great, as you are in small classes and you can really concentrate on getting your technique back after performing. However, it was nice when everyone returned to do the Gala on the 12th.

The Gala - a celebration of the life of Christopher Gable was an amazing opportunity for us all. Just being backstage at Sadler's Wells and rehearsing alongside stars from throughout the dance world was a real honour. The dressing rooms were complete luxury compared to most of the theatres we have danced in so far and the stage was absolutely massive and so exciting to dance on. I had such a sense of freedom when performing the piece - extracts from Sara Matthew's 'Feeney's Eleven' - and I was also really proud to be dancing at such a prestigious occasion. My parents came down to see the Gala, and it was nice to see them briefly after the show as I won't be getting home to Aberdeen for a while yet!

The next weekend I was off to Milan! In October I choreographed a show for The Anita Jones Hair Salon at the 1999 Salon International at Wembley. To my absolute delight they asked me a couple of months ago if I would choreograph for two shows they were doing in Italy - one in Milan and one in Rimini. I had managed to persuade Greg to let me stay out there enough time to take class with a contemporary company too so it was a marvelous opportunity for me.

When we arrived at the agency in Milan to cast the models, we discovered that none of them had much dance training or experience at all - gorgeous they may have been, but dance was not their strong point. To add to the panic, hardly any of them could speak any English, so I had to attempt to rehearse them in French (my A-Level knowledge at least coming in handy but barely standing up to the challenge!) However, after two days of manic rehearsing, the show came around and the models were as ready as they would ever be. They went on stage looking stunning, and promptly most of them completely forgot the routines, but at least they were professional enough to cover it up and they all carried it off well so it was a success thank goodness!

For the next three days I went to take class with the Compagnia di Danza Susanna Beltrami in Milan. It was really great as I found the classes excellent and everyone was really friendly towards me. Even though the classes were conducted in Italian (of course) I feel that I got a lot out of them. I was also able to take in a few of the sights of Milan including the Duomo which was incredibly beautiful, and of course to look around the fabulous shoe and bag shops, although unfortunately they were all priced way out of my league!

Sadly, I couldn't stay in Milan forever, and I returned back last week ready to fit back into Ballet Central. It was off to Cannock with a vastly altered class due to last minute injuries. I did a new part in one of the pieces, as did many of the other dancers, so the show was a challenge for us all. I also had to rehearse some new dancers in my piece because one of my original cast was injured, but the new recruits coped admirably well, and there was celebrating to be done when we returned to the Hotel. I expect tomorrow's venue - Reading - will be much the same with more injuries cropping up all the time. Hopefully everyone will be fully recovered for the important London shows which start next week.

Martin Collyer
March has proved to hold the most challenging but also most exciting part of the tour so far. This came when we were asked to do a section of 'Feeneys Eleven' by Sara Matthews in a gala commemorating the life and work of our founder artistic Director, Christopher Gable. This coinciding with the tour really kicking off made for a really long, tough week.

It was also the hardest few weeks of the tour so far for me as a colleague's injury resulted in my having to learn several new parts, including one of the dogs in Michael Keegan Dolan's 'Dog Suite'. The two main difficulties in doing this part were 1) getting used to running around on all fours looking like a dog for ten minutes or so (surprisingly!!) and 2), the fact that the part was created very much on the abilities and personality of my colleague, Fernando. This made the part somewhat awkward to do.

So, the month started with in school rehearsals. I had to learn 'Dog Suite' to cover Fernando, as well as parts in several other ballets. Many other people were also having to get to grips with ballets or parts they had never done before to cover for illness or injury. Soon it was off to Boston in Lincolnshire. Normally when we tour away from London we have hotel accommodation but here we were to be staying with families of friends of the theatre. Many of us were apprehensive at first but it actually turned out to be a real treat. The couple three friends and I were staying with in particular were absolute stars, making us feel entirely welcome, being great fun and providing us with all the food we cared to eat. (I might add that for four male dancers, myself in particular, that's a LOT of food!) So thank you Patrick and Judith Hall, on behalf of all of us.

I found Boston almost as nerve wracking as the first show of the tour as I was to be doing two new and very difficult pieces, 'Dog Suite' and also 'the world premiere of Greg Horsman's new piece, Pasde3. The shows were a great success, the second night apparently being the best show of the tour so far. The next day, with little pause for breath, it was back to London for a day of class and rehearsals leading up to our appearance in Celebration that same night. The gala was in tribute to our founder Director, Christopher Gable who very sadly passed away over a year ago and we were all very eager to do the best we possibly could.

It was both exciting and daunting to be dancing alongside dancers such as Irek Mukhamedov, Altynai Asylmuratova and William Tuckett (to name but a few) at the plush new Sadler's Wells theatre. The stage was so big that we all felt even smaller than usual but I think the excitement of it all held our tiredness at bay, at least until the show was over anyway!!

Much to our displeasure, it was back to school at 10 o'clock the next morning to do class before travelling to Truro. Truro was the nicest theatre and the biggest stage of the tour so far. The theatre staff couldn't believe our excitement at the fact that there were showers! It was lovely but also very challenging dancing on a big stage like that, 'Dog Suite' in particular being very tiring.-imagine trying to cover as much space as possible in as short a time as possible, on all fours!

After a substantial period (12 days) at home and rehearsing in school it was off again, this time to the Isle of Wight. It looked to be a very difficult stage but the show came off well after all and got a warm reception from the audience.

Finishing this month we have Cannock in three days time (31ST ), Reading two days after that and then the London performances at the Lilian Baylis theatre, Sadler's Wells and the Linbury studio theatre at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. -Exciting but very scary indeed! I then hope to do some auditions. I'll tell you all about it in a month's time, 'Bye and take care.

Benjamin Whitson
When I was first approached to keep a diary, my immediate concern was that my life might be a bit boring and it wouldn't be of interest to you. Well I'm pleased to say that so much has happened that I am finding it very difficult to decide what to include in this entry.

Well I guess it would be a good idea to tell you what is involved in a typical day with Ballet Central. If we are on a rest from touring we will start the day with a Classical Ballet class around 10.00am, this also involves getting in about an hour before to gently warm the body up and prepare for the day ahead. After class we may have an Allegro (pointe work for girls) contemporary or pas de deux class, and this will then be immediately followed by rehearsals which go on till about 7.00pm. However when we are on tour it's a different story. We will be called to the theatre for 9.00am to do the get in, this involves unloading the truck, laying the floor, rigging the lights, checking the sound, and preparing the costumes. We usually break at about 11.30am and then we are called for class and a technical rehearsal from about 1.00pm - 6.00pm. Then we slap on a bit of make up, slip into our costumes and grease ( or buff for Greg) our hair for curtain up at 7.30pm. Then once the curtains down, and if there is no show the next day, we have to roll up the floor, take down the lights etc and hopefully the get out will finish at about 10:45pm that leaves just enough time to find the nearest bar. So there you go that is more or less our daily timetable.

Well it's been a pretty mad period recently so much has been happening. We've been suddenly plagued by injury, we've been to stages were the wing is in the upstage corner. Ghost stories in the hotel lounge at midnight. Leaking ice packs, which resulted in me running over the M20 at midnight. Cramped long journeys on the minibus. Tiny stages to massive stages, being very ill and feeling like collapsing and dying of embarrassment on stage. However this is the best one, in Truro Hall for Cornwall were all on stage warming up and getting ready for act two which opens with the Grande Pas Classique from the last act of Raymonda. The girls are practising fouettes, the boys double tours, our director Greg Horsman is on stage giving notes and then without warning the curtain goes up. Well people are running around, Greg runs off stage saying things that I can't repeat in the wings and my partner runs off stage thinking that they will bring the curtain down. Well they didn't so on creeps Simone and shuffles into place, we weren't just smiling we were nearly laughing, but the stage manager ( who worked for the theater not us) didn't tell us to stand by. However it can't of been that bad a performance because we got our first "BRAVO" after Raymonda.

It must be said however that the highlight of the month and the year so far was being fortunate enough to perform at Sadler's Wells in the Christopher Gable Gala. It was incredible. Unfortunately Christopher died when I was in my second year, however I still remember working for him when I was rehearsing for the school performances in my first year. The doors swung open like something out of a film and in walked Christopher and he had instant control over us. Without him having to say much I was beginning to understand how amazing he was and the influence he can have on people. He totally transformed what we were doing from students tottering around in a studio to dancers beginning to understand the movement. The atmosphere was electric as everyone was trying there best to please him.

The Gala was wonderful, I was sharing a stage with some of the biggest names in dance to a packed auditorium. We had just come from a lovely but rather small stage, which in comparison was not even as big as a quarter of the stage at Sadler's Wells. We performing the last couple of sections from Sara Matthew's Feeney's Eleven. Feeney's Eleven involves allot of running around and the first time we rehearsed we just laughed because we never stopped running, (or for this sprinting) we were having to come on stage two of three counts earlier just to be able to be in place on time. The performance was exhilarating and something I will never forget.

Well although all of the performing is fantastic it is all going to stop in July when I graduate, and like all the other graduating students I WANT A JOB! ! ! !!! This is a very frightening time for us as you can imagine. It is a big step being on your own and although BGBC helps bridge the gap between student and performer, the only way you can really experience it is by actually getting out there on your own. I am pleased to say that fortunately ( fingers crossed) things seem to be working themselves out and I have a couple of opportunities which I will tell you about if anything further develops.

Well April is nearly here, and no doubt it is going to be full of last minute changes and tales of touring, in fact the pressure is on because our London season is approaching. We have one show at the Lillian Baylis Theater, Sadler's Wells, and three shows at the prestigious Lindbury Studio Theatre at Covent Garden. I'd better make the most of it because I may never dance there again.

Well until next time,