Ballet Central Diary

Ashley's March diary

Hey guys hope everyone is well and looking forward to Easter holidays, because I know I am. I’ve been really busy since I last wrote with rehearsals and starting the tour.

Rehearsals have been getting a lot tougher and people are getting tenser before the beginning of tour, me included. After the Preview performance here at Central School, we were told that we would have another one the following week, as well as performing excerpts from the tour at an Open Day for hopeful new students. This meant more performance practice for us which was gratefully received but turned out to be quite a tough week.

The following week was the beginning of tour and everyone was very exited. We arrived at Epsom early on the Monday morning ready to do our first full get-in as a company. Everyone is assigned different task such as wardrobe, lighting, sound etc. I was appointed to lighting, which is great fun. This involves everything from setting the lights up to helping to get the lights in the right place (focusing). After the get-in we went back to school and continued rehearsing. The following day we were in the theatre for the whole day and had a dress rehearsal that the whole school came to watch. This was a really good experience as it was the toughest and best audience we would have! our peers can criticise every wrong move, but also give us a lot of support. After the dress rehearsal I had a great buzz and couldn’t wait for the tour to start for real.

The next day everyone was very tired but this soon changed when we got to performance time and there was a real feeling of excitement. The performance went well that night and since Epsom we have performed in Norwich, Chelmsford and a seven-day tour of the north of England.

Unfortunately I did not go on the 7-day tour because I had my RAD Solo Seal examination. I took this on Wednesday 31st March and found out a few days ago that I was successful! I also got to the final of the NBT audition I went to and am just waiting to here from them. Anyway I think that is all that has happened this month so I’ll be off and I’ll keep you all informed.

C u soon, Ash

Posted by at April 5, 2004 05:43 PM