Ballet Central Diary

Christie's March Diary - the tour begins

Hello again to all readers! The end of March has come about so quickly, I can hardly believe how much I and the rest of the Ballet Central Company have already achieved.

At the very beginning of the month I travelled to Nottingham to perform once again with Northern Ballet Theatre in Swan Lake. The first performance was on the 2nd, which was my 19th birthday! I took some of my presents up with me to open in the morning, as class wasn’t until 12.30 that day, a welcome change to the earlier starts at school.

It was strange once again being with the company and taking class on a raked stage. However, it’s amazing how as a dancer you learn to adapt to your surroundings and the dancers around you.

As the week progressed I felt far more relaxed and settled within the company, a complete change from those nervous first days back in January. As the curtain came down on the Saturday performance I felt a wave of sadness, as it was my last performance with the company, as well as a great sense of achievement and satisfaction!

Back at school – preparing for the tour!

Once back at school everyone was as busy as ever. Although the tour didn’t officially start until March 17th, Ballet Central put on previews and in-house performances at school, in preparation for the opening night. By this time I’d missed seven weeks of rehearsal time and had a lot to catch up on.

With the first performance coming up at the end of the week I had even less time to rehearse than I’d thought. However, I found that the preview performances were far better preparation for me, as they taught me how I react under the pressure of performing to an audience. I became aware of any mistakes that I made and leant how I react to nerves.

The tour finally got under way in Epsom on Wednesday 17th March. It was an exciting and nerve-wracking time as we began to feel like a real company as well as a team. Part of what made us work as a team was having to do the ‘get-in’. The whole company was divided into groups who helped in different aspects of preparing the theatre for performance. I helped in wardrobe, which involved unloading and unbagging costumes, washing them and hanging them by the name tags with whom they belong. With everyone helping to get things done, the get-in can be done quite quickly and brings the whole year together. Working in wardrobe can be quite fun, although I’m not over-keen on washing the boys socks for David Bintley’s ‘Scottish Dances’!

Ballet Central then went out on the road for the first time, performing in four venues over a week. Our first venue, Kendal, was definitely the most memorable for me so far, although for the wrong reason, as I didn’t get to perform! However, I did discover that I’m very badly allergic to something that I’d eaten that day, although I’m not sure what yet! I began feeling unwell during class and started to feel shaky as the afternoon went on. As we were rehearsing the pas de deux from Vespri, I knew that something was definitely not right, but continued anyway and made it into the wings. Just as I stepped off stage I fainted and can only remember waking up to hear people talking and gathered around me. I ended up waiting in the accident and emergency department of Kendal’s local hospital after taking a ride in an ambulance!

I did manage to make it back to the theatre though just in time to watch the 3rd act of the performance.

In between touring I went to another audition for Northern Ballet Theatre. I felt more nervous than I thought I would, probably as the outcome meant so much to me. We were told that we would be contacted within 2 weeks of the audition, which meant we would find out from them at the beginning of April. Although I came out of the audition feeling fairly happy with how I’d done, I was up against so many other talented dancers all hoping for a contract, so I wasn’t sure of what the outcome would be.

On Friday 2nd April, the Ballet Central coach arrived back at school and we began the tedious job of unloading the van. Just as I was feeling the affects of being on tour, tired and lethargic, I received a phone call. I went really pale and shaky as you do when you answer an important phone call that you’ve been waiting for. It was NBT calling to say that I’d been offered a contract starting from the summer. I was so thrilled that I started crying, as I also felt so relieved. This day was made even more memorable as it was the fourth anniversary of my Nan’s death. I know that she would be so proud of me, which makes all the hard work seem even more worthwhile.

Posted by at April 5, 2004 05:36 PM